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DR.. MASVJI MIYAKAWA'S 
•POWERS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE" 

Translated from English Into Japanese and French 



Prominent Members in the I,egislative, Executive, and Judicial Departments, 
and the Statesmen of Japan and the United States write Intro- 
ductory Prefaces to the forthcoming Second Edition. 



INTRODVCTORY PREFACE: 

by 

THE HONORABLE TEIICHI SUGITA 

Speaker of the Imperial House of Representatives 



The governmental structure founded and reared on the Con- 
stitution of the United States shows many distinguished features 
from those of Europe and other Republics in the American Con- 
tinent. For a foreigner to thoroughly master the knowledge of the 
structure is, in no wise, an easy task. This difficulty is the chasm 
which separated us from securing a good work on the subject by 
foreigners. I have felt and regretted this for years past. 

Although a great and famous work, "American Common- 
wealth," written by Mr. James Bryce, the English Ambassador in 
America, surprises us with its thorough investigation, we, in the 
Orient, whose governmental organization and national character 
are so dissimilar, were forced to remain with deficient knowledge. 
One, and the only solution for us, an Oriental nation, was to wait 
for the publication of a book by an Oriental, known to us as a 
scholar, who should succeed in investigating the American char- 
acteristic peculiarities. Now comes a book that rewards our long 
wait, wiping out our regret and bridging the chasm that separate 
us from intimacy with the American institutions ; that is, the publi- 
cation of your great work, "Powers of the American People." And 
for this it is my duty, which I owe to my country of Japan, here 
to tender to you, with respect and reverence, my heartfelt thanks 
and gratefulness. At the same time, I believe and affirm that when 
you made the comparative investigation you had a fixed purpose 
to provide for our need. 

In reading your book I am satisfied that it gives us invaluable 
benefit, and I also come to the conclusion that your treatise on 
naturalization, the American national and international positions, 
the jurisdiction of the courts, and other diverse features, are most 
concise, scholarly, and comprehensive. 

Wherefore, I invite and persuade the people of Japan to read 
the work, — a work that discloses the institutions of the people with 
whom it is and must be instrumental in impelling us to closer and 
friendlier relationship. 

I have the honor to be, Sir, 

Very sincerely yours. 

The Official Residence of Speaker of the ^tMTPWT ^Tir^TT^A 

Imperial House of Representatives, X iVin^nj. vjuvtxj.^. 

Tokyo, May 31st, 1907. 

To Masuji Miyakawa, Esq. 

(Translation of opposite page.) 



LIFE OF JAPAN 





*^ /^y^^^ * 



/^^^^^ /^^r^^i 



ftt^Tic^-hci^ 



Life of Japan 



BY 



MASUJI MIYAKAWA 

Author of "Powers of the American People, Etc' 



" The Mighty Island Elmpire of Japan ; that 
Empire, which, in learning from the West, has 
shown that it had so much, so very much, to 
teach the West in return." 

Theodore; roosevelt 



NEW YORK 
THE BAKER 6; TAYLOR COMPANY 




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fi"T« rt E f»Ynf CONGRESS I 
j \wu C'lOiBs deceived " 

I AUG 29 190;" J 

■ .'inpvneht Entry 
j COPY B. 



Copyright, August. 1907 

BY 

Masuji Miyakawa 



THE WILKENS-SHEIKY PRiSS 
WA6HINQT0N, D. C. 



EMBELLISHMENTS BY 8. MORITA, JAPANESE ARTIST, SENT ABROAD BY THE JAPANESE OOVERNMENT 
AND R. 6. MAYATA, JAPANESE ARTIST 



TO THE HONORABLE 

PERRY BELMONT 

A GRANDSON OF 

Commodore Mathew Calbraith Perry 

The National Redeemer 
of Japan 

THIS WORK 

IS 

MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

BY 

THE AUTHOR 




INTRODUCTORY 

"West is West and East is East, never the 
twain shall meet"; Oh, what a remarkable 
specimen of self-conceited and egotistic epi- 
gram ! If the words of Kipling and other emi- 
nent writers of his rank continued to play on 
the passions of the American populace, where 
would be landed the millions of diligent stu- 
dents of modern applied sciences, of arts, of 
Bible, of pedagogue, of humanity, and of civili- 
zation? West shall be East and East shall be 
West, and both must stand till the end of earth 
and sky, side by side "at God's great judgment 
seat!" 

Well-established economic reasons and natu- 
ral forces indicate that in the case of the United 
States and Japan only amity, good feeling or 
mutual respect should prevail, for each can be 
most' helpful in the development of the other, 
and the interests of both can be best subserved 
by unrestricted intercommunication and trade. 
To that end Americans must not dwell in ig- 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

norance of Japan and Japanese conditions and 
Japanese must have intelligent ideas of Amer- 
ica and American institutions. And herein 
comes the indispensableness of books on Japan 
to be studied by American patriots and at the 
fireside of millions of the American homes. 

An American cannot understand all Japan 
any more than he can all America. Japanese 
ci.anot learn all America any more than he can 
all Japan. But it is certainly the duty of every 
citizen to know the First Emperor, Jimmu, as 
well as the first President, Washington; to 
take notice of the Imperial Diet no less than 
the Congressional records; to make debate on 
the Imperial constitution and law and discuss 
the spirit and letter of the American charter of 
liberty; to understand the causes and outcome 
of the American revolutionary, civil, and Span- 
ish wars, also the American expedition to 
Japan and subsequent overthrowing of Feud- 
alism and the ascension of the present Em- 
peror and Japanese wars with China and Rus- 
sia ; not only Philadelphia ship yards, but those 
of Yokosuka and Kure; American yellow 
journals and Japanese journalism ; West Point 

[8] 



INTRODUCTORY 



and Annapolis and Etajima and Tokyo; the 
great industrial progress of the United 
States and that of Japan; the Japanese must 
never be arrogant but courteous and fair, and 
the American should be bound by the same 
rule; each must meet the other half way; to 
lose sight of this common quality of citizen- 
ship or stray from this common-sense standard 
would work to the detriment of both peoples. 

However, we must be aware that there are 
many kinds of books on Japan largely circu- 
lated in this country. One class of these books 
tell that Japan has quaint tea houses, weird 
temples, lantern fetes, that rikishia men are 
very convenient human horses in Tokyo ; that 
you pay a few yen for a beautiful Japanese 
maiden for housekeeper and concubine for 
many months; that the Japanese in kimonos 
look becoming, pretty and fascinating, and 
other bits of trivial things. And often outcast 
Japanese immoral women are exploited in pho- 
tographs as illustrations of typical Japanese 
ladies. These in his wisdom he has collected 
at vast expense of time and money. 

Another class of books on Japan is that in 

[9] 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

which an author is devoted simply to the dis- 
covery of anything beautiful, of exquisite views, 
picturesque coloring, scenery and landscape of 
the hills, mountains, seas, cities, towns, vil- 
lages, shrines, temples or bamboo cottages, all 
that interest and delight his curiosity or artis- 
tic senses. This kind of book is quite harmless, 
for it is merely the making of a picture gallery 
or conemetograph. But there is another class 
of these books, whose writer has but one object 
in view, and that is to lay bare the life and soul 
of the people and nation. Whatever he sees 
and writes is in a philosophical vein and in itself 
that tends as all honest writing does, to make 
the two distinct civilizations nobler, and the 
two distinct people closer, friendlier and hap- 
pier. 

In "Life of Japan" the author has divided 
the volume into three parts. In the first part 
he intended to substantiate the well-settled 
principle that a man, physically, mentally, and 
morally, is vastly influenced by his environ- 
ments. Hence the reader will see such subjects 
as religion, moral ethics, idea of homes, cus- 
toms and habit^, topography, feudalism. Spe- 



J^ /r 



'^ 




-PMSSiBI 



n^„ 



INTRODUCTORY 







ciaf5ffl^£fsis must be given to the causes of 
. the overthrow of feudahsm, and also added to 
IJfcit the ancient and mediaeval intercourse of Japan 
with foreign countries. 

With the second part will come one of the 
main objects of this work. Herein, thoughtful 
Jeaders are sought to be convinced of the great 
possibilities of the future of American-Japanese 
Intercourse. To follow the footsteps of the 
historical events that have been represented 
herein will be the guide post to the success of 
the American and Japanese. Here to the read- 
ers are revealed the romantic relations of the 
United States and Japan; how the famous 
American expedition under Commodore Perry 
was conducted, how the Emperor and Presi- 
dent first made exchange of courtesies; how 
humanity and civilization is indebted to the 
American people; how the present Emperor 
ascended the throne, what are the causes of the 
Japanese War with China and Russia, and 
what are the Japanese national principles, 
around which grew the financial reforms, in- 
dustrial development, military, naval, and civil . ^^ , . 
education, and with these national principles 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

how Japan emerged from obscurity into the 
forefront of modern nations. 

Among many questions, one put to the 
Japanese, whether here or in Europe, and with 
comparatively scanty reply, is the question in 
reference to the administration of Justice, and 
the administrative system of government in the 
present Japan, No national life is better tested 
than to know what the laws and judiciary are 
like. It is but natural for the Americans and 
their related teutonic races to so anxiously ask 
the question, for they are brought up to believe 
that law, or reign of law, is or should be the 
goal of modern progress. In the third part, 
therefore, the author discussed the origin and 
growth of the Japanese constitution and law, 
not exhaustively, but perhaps amply enough to 
permit the general reader to correctly under- 
stand the legal institutions. Also, in this part, 
readers are invited into a separate representa- 
tion that is the least written about, and which 
is, nevertheless, one of the most indispensable 
ingredients of Japanese progress; namely, 
journalism in Japan. And at last, the readers 
are brought to the critical stage or very hot- 

[12] 



INTRODUCTORY 



bed of the timely discussion,— Shall it be war 
or shall it be peace ? The author has attempted 
to put forward the ten reasons against the 
possibility of an American-Japanese War. 

The author must here add affectionate ac- 
knowledgment for the encouragement he has 
received in writing a book on Japan, from many 
kind and sympathetic American friends. He 
will here express his appreciation, individually, 
for the encouragement coming from personal 
acquaintance, and, collectively, for the encour- 
agement coming from institutions, before 
whom the author had the honor to deliver a 
series of lectures on Japan. Among many 
others, the author wishes to thank the members 
of the Fortnightly Club, of Bloomington, Ind., 
of which Prof. Enoch G. Hogate, the Dean of 
the Law School of the University of Indiana, 
was then President; to the members of the 
Historical Club of the same place, of which 
Prof. James Albert Woodburn, Professor of 
History in the Universities of Indiana and Wis- 
consin, was President; to the members of the 
Young Women's Christian Association, also 
of the same place; the Century Club of San 

[13] 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

Francisco, of which the Hon. James G. Ma- 
guire, then U. S. Representative, presided; to 
the members of the Women's Literary Associa- 
tion of San Francisco; to the members of 
Grace M. E. Church, and the Fourth Presbyte- 
rian Church, both of Chicago ; the First Presby- 
terian Church, of Bloomington, Ind. ; to the fac- 
ulty and students of the Illinois College of Law, 
Chicago; Mr. Oscar H. Williams, of Alexan- 
dria, Indiana ; Mr. Thomas J. Taylor, of Wash- 
ington; Mrs. Langille, of Kensington Club of 
Maryland ; Miss Julia L. Langille, a teacher of 
Chevy Chase School, District of Columbia ; Mr. 
and Mrs. Walter B. Wooden, of Washington; 
Prof. Oliver W. Brown, of the University of 
Wisconsin ; Prof. Amos Hershey, Indiana Uni- 
versity ; the faculty of Indiana University ; Hon. 
Joseph R. Knowland, U. S. Representative, 
Alameda, Cal. ; the late Judge George L. Rein- 
hard, of Indiana; Prof. Simon Newcomb, 
President of the International Congress of Art 
and Science, the World's Fair, St. Louis, and 
Hon. Wm. Loeb, Jr., of Washington. 

This work is written, not in the least to prove 
the author's English literary excellence, or to 



[14] 



^ 



INTRODUCTORY 




get fame for admirable lucidity of style, for he 
was brought up in a language wholly unlike the 
one in which he is writing, and which often 
being diametrically opposite in expression, he 
feels satisfied with the most humble degree of 
success. There is consolation, however, in the 
fact that he can write out what he thinks, and 
express his ideas without revision as to the 
literary form or as to the English, asking no 
other's idea, suggestion or assistance. If, hap- 
pily, as he aims, there is found no self-conceit, 
no egotism, no arrogance, no assumption, no 
doubting, no blunder, but true, concise and im- 
partial treatment in this work, and if these aims 
invoke some sympathy, and in consequence 
thereof the West can understand the East and 
the East can understand the West, the author 
t^ill be most happy ; and in conclusion he begs 
to say : 

"If thou lovest, help me with thy blessing; 
If otherwise, mine shall be for thee. 
If thou approvest, heed my words; 
If otherwise, in kindness be my teacher." 

Masuji Miyakawa. 

Washington, D. C, July 4, I907- 
[15] 



o™,. 



CONTENTS, 



Introductory 



part II 

CHAPTER I 

New Japan as Old as Ever 

Section i. The Wonderful Progress of Japan 35 
Sec. 2. Secret of the Japanese Progress. . . 37 

CHAPTER II 

Religions in Japan 

Sec. 3. Introduction of Christianity 40 

Sec. 4. The Interdiction of Christianity. . . 42 

Sec. 5. Justification of the Christian Inter- 
diction 43 

[17] 






LIFE OF JAPAN 

PAGS 

Sec. 6. Japan Isolated from the Rest of the 

World 45 

Sec. 7. Christianity Never Died 46 

Sec. 8. The Japanese Native Religion 47 

CHAPTER III 

The Japanese Moral Ethics 

Sec. 9. Bushido 50 

Sec. 10. Suicide as the Highest Conception 

of Japanese Individuality 52 

Sec. II. Justification of the Suicide Custom 53 

Sec. 12. Fruit of the Japanese Character- 
Making 54 

Sec. 13. Bushido in Olden Time as Well as 
♦^^^^ ^ in New Era 55 

Sec. 14. The Japanese Swords 57 

.^ Sec. 15. Analogy of Bushido 58 

Sec. 16. The Japanese Moral Ethics Never 

Die 59 

[18] 





CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 

The Japanese Woman 

PAiS 
Sec. 17. Influence of Buddhism, Confucian- 
ism and Bushido 61 

Sec. 18. Woman's Education in Old Japan. 64 

Sec. 19. Ideals of the Japanese Woman of 

To-day 65 

Sec. 20. Ideals of the Japanese Happy Home 68 

Sec. 21. The Japanese Wife 69 

CHAPTER V 

Japanese Customs and Habits 

Sec. 22. Japanese at Home 72 

Sec. 23. Peculiar Habits of the Japanese. . . 74 
[19] 







LIFE OF JAPAN 

CHAPTER VI 

Topography of Japan 

PAGE 

Sec. 24. The Sacred Lake Biwa 78 

Sec, 25. The Sacred Mountain Fuji 80 

CHAPTER VII 

Feudalism in Japan 

Sec. 26. Japan's First Emperor 84 

Sec. 27. Commencement of FeudaUsm 85 

Sec. 28. The Caste System 87 

Sec. 29. The Periclean Age of Medieval 

Japan 88 

Sec. 30. Instance of a Beggar Who Became 

Shogun 90 

Sec. 31. The Bloodiest Civil War in the 

Middle Ages 91 

Sec. 32. Working of the Feudal System. . . 93 

Sec. 33. The Famous Samurai Caste 95 

Sec. 34. The Emperor's Position 96 

[20] 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VIII 

Causes for Overthrow of Feudalism 

PAGE 

Sec. 35. The Foreign Influence 99 

Sec. 36. Japan was in Favor of War with 

the United States 100 

Sec. 37. li Kamon, the Roosevelt of Japan. 102 

Sec. 38. Outside Causes for the Fall of the 

Shogunate 105 

Sec. 39. The Inside Correlative Causes .... 106 



CHAPTER IX 

Japanese Medieval Foreign 
Intercourse 

Sec. 40. Ancient Foreign Intercourse 1 1 1 

Sec. 41. Semitic and Hamitic Civilization 

Transplanted in Japan 112 

[21] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 



PAGE 



Sec. 42. The Japanese May Have Dis- 
covered America 113 

Sec. 43. Early Japan in the Eyes of Euro- 
peans 114 

Sec. 44. Coming of Confucianism and Bud- 
dhism 116 

Sec. 45. Introduction of European Learning 

During the Sixteenth Century. . . 117 

Sec. 46. Reciprocal Treaty Between Japan 

and England in the Middle Ages 120 

part im 

CHAPTER X 

Romantic Relation to the United States 

Sec. 47. Perry's Historical Expedition to 

Japan 125 

Sec. 48. The First Visit of Commodore 

Perry 127 

[22] 



CONTENTS 




page; 

Sec. 49. The Instruction of American Gov- 
ernment to Commodore Perry .. . 131 

Sec. 50. Perry's Biography 133 

Sec. 51. Perry's Visit and the Confusion and 

Excitement of the Japanese 134 

Sec. 52. Japan Did Not Want Perry 135 

Sec. 53. Attitude of Perry Worked Miracles 136 

Sec. 54. Perry's PreHminary Commission., 137 

Sec. 55. Perry as the National Redeemer of 

Japan 139 

CHAPTER XI 

Triumphs of Anmerican Diplomacy 

Sec. 56. Twenty Years Before the Perry 

Expedition 143 

Sec. 57. Most Astute Diplomatic Sagacity. . 144 

Sec. 58. Mr. Harris, the First U. S. Minister 146 

[23] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

PAGE 

Sec. 59. Assassination of the American 

Diplomatic Agent 147 

Sec. 60. The American Legation Set on Fire 149 

Sec. 61. Japanese Foreign Relation More 

Confounded 1 50 

Sec. 62. Gift of $750,000 from United 

States 1 52 

Sec. 63. The United States as Japan's 
f^^ Foster-Mother 153 

Sec. 64. The Causes of Chino- Japanese 

Wars 154 

Sec. 65. The Declaration of Chinese-Jap- 
anese War 158 

Sec. 66. The Termination of War 160 

Sec. 67. The Causes of the Russian-Jap- 
anese War 162 

Sec. 68. The Declaration of Russian- Jap- 
anese War 164 

Sec. 69. Result of the War 164 

[24] 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Sec. 70. America's Relation to Japan's Na- 
tional Calamities 168 

Sec. 71. American Women at the Beginning 

of Russo-Japanese War 169 

Sec. 'J2. American Sympathy with Progress 

of War 169 

Sec. 73. The American Square Deal Diplo- 
matic Policy 171 

Sec. 74. The Greatest Battles on Land and 

Sea 172 

Sec. 75. The World Sees End of War 174 

Sec. 76. President Roosevelt's Relation to 

the Peace Conference 175 



CHAPTER XII 

Present Emperor to the Throne 

Sec. "jy. The Historical Event 177 

Sec. 78. Declaration of National Principles. 178 

[25] 



liT 



„S?o 



^V-' 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

CHAPTER XII! 

Reform of the Financial System 

PAGE 

Sec. 79. The Financial Systems in Pre- 

Restoration Time 180 

Sec. 80. How Taxes Were Paid in the 

Feudal Ages 181 

Sec. 81. How Reforms Were Brought About 183 

Sec. 82. Local Revenue 184 

CHAPTER XIV 

Japanese Industrial Development 

Sec. 83. Communication and Transportation 186 

Sec. 84. Silver and Gold Standards 187 

Sec. 85. Growth of Japan's Foreign Trade. 188 

Sec. 86. The Future of Japanese-American 

Foreign Trade 190 

Sec. 87. Future Development of Japan's 

Foreign Trade 192 

[26] 





CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XV 

The Army and the Navy of Japan 

PAGE 

Sec. 88. The Attraction of the World's 

PowervS 194 

Sec. 89. How Soldiers Were Trained in the 

Earliest Ages I95 

Sec. 90. The Rise of a Great Man in the 

Last Shogunate Regime 196 

Sec. 91. Who Are Soldiers in Japan 197 

Sec. 92. Study of the Japanese Soldiers 199 

Sec. 93. President Roosevelt and General 
Chaffee Speak of the Japanese 
Soldiers 201 

Sec. 94. The Navy of Japan 202 

Sec. 95. Most Thorough Training of Naval 

Officers 203 

Sec. 96. The Naval Colleges 205 

Sec. 97. The Authorities of the World 

Speak for the Japanese Navy. . . 206 

[27] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

PAGE 

Sec. 98. Origin of the Red Cross Society in 

Japan 207 

Sec. 99. The Red Cross in Chinese-Japanese 

War 208 

Sec. 100. The Red Cross at Opening of Jap- 
anese-Russian War 209 



CHAPTER XVI 

Education ii\ Japan 

Sec. loi. Education in the Old Regime. ... 211 

Sec. 102. American Educators in the Educa- 
tion of Japan 211 

Sec. 103. The Famous Imperial Rescript on 

Education 213 

Sec. 104. The Educational Institution 215 

Sec. 105. The Weather Bureau 215 

[28] 




Japanese Constitutional Government 



PAG^ 

Sec. io6. Old and New Constitution 221 

Sec. 107. The Japanese Constitution in the 

Earliest Ages 222 

Sec. 108. Japanese Administration System. 224 

Sec. 109. Beginning of Constitutional Gov- 
ernment in Japan 227 

Sec. no. Preparing a Written Constitution . 228 

Sec. III. Proclamation of the Imperi^C 

stitution ^|^MKS|^^^«Q "^ 

Sec. 112. The Japanese ConstituBoh Corri-I 
pared with that of the United ^^ 

_ ■„■'■;■■ ij/fc ■ 

States r^- 1:^ • • • 232 

Sec. 113. Life, Liberty, Property and Pur- 
suit of Happiness in Japan. > . . . . 233' 

Sec. 114. Japanese Cabinet Compared with 
Those of the United StateSi and 
England r^v . . 

Sec. 115. King Can Do No Wrong J. . 237 



,^^>- 



[29] 



cc 






LIFE OF JAPAN 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Japan under the Reign of Law 

PAGE 

Sec. ii6. Individual Relation to Society in 

the Primitive Stage 239 

Sec. 117. Old Japanese Laws of Wife, Hus- 
band, Family, and Succession. . . 240 

Sec. 118. Historical Epoch of the Departure 

from Old Japanese Laws 242 

Sec. 119. Japan Studies Laws of Europe 

and the United States 2z|4 

Sec. 120. The Present Japanese Laws 246 

Sec. 121. The Japanese Courts 247 

Sec. 122. The Japanese Woman Under the 

Present Law 250 

Sec. 123. Foreigners Under the Present 

Law 251 

CHAPTER XIX 

Journalism in Japan 

Sec. 124. Beginning of the Japanese Jour- 
nalism 256 

[30] 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Sec. 125. The Japanese Characters and the 

Progress of Journalism 257 

Sec. 126. Most Complicated System of the 

Typesetting 259 

Sec. 127. Woman JournaHsts in Japan 261 

Sec. 128. Individuality of Journalism 263 

CHAPTER XX 

American-Japanese War 

Sec. 129. What of Universal Peace? 266 

Sec. 130. Improvement of the Law of Na- 
tions 269 

Sec. 131. Cowardice of the Civilized World 274 

Sec. 132. Military Expansion of the United 

States and Japan 278 

Sec. 133. Japan and the United States in 

Their Relation to San Francisco 280 

Sec. 134. Commercial War Between Japan 

and the United States 289 

Sec. 135. Causes that are Against Japanese- 
American War 292 

Sec. 136. Prophetic Future 299 

[31] 





PART I 






" A single life may give much ease, but far greater 
are the pleasures of a married life, and so are also the 
corresponding troubles." 



NEW JAPAN AS OLD AS EVER 



CHAPTER I 



"May our Lord's dominion last 
Till a thousand years have passed, 

Twice four thousand times o'ertold ! 
Firm as changeless rock, earth-rooted. 
Moss of age uncomputed 

Grow upon it, green and old !" 

— The National Anthem of Japan. 



Ne^v Japan as Old as Ever 

Section i. The Wonderful Progress of 
Japan: In recent years Japanese institu- 
tions have been studied by Americans and Eu- 
ropeans, and many books have been written 
about them. Yet how Httle is really known of 
the Japanese people. It is said by almost every 
American and European that Japan is pro- 
gressing so rapidly, and her people chang- 
ing, and losing their old mode of life, thought, 
ideas, and conceptions so fast, that those who 
wish to see and study real Japan must speed 

[35] 





their journey across the ocean, or the old Japan 
will be lost as a source of information and 
study to historians and other observers. What 
an extravagant stretch of imagination! What 
a sign of ignorance of the laws governing the 
growth of a nations or its people! Rome was 
not built in a day, nor did her power and influ- 
ence decline so fast, nor in one generation, 
Japan has been introducing great changes, 
adapting Western institutions to her wants 
as far as is considered necessary, both in 
the departments of war and peace, yet 
results which have really followed such an 
evolution are as yet more superficial than 
real. The original Japanese have not been 
thereby much affected. What else should 
be expected? One would be mistaken if he 
thought that any race could be so readily trans- 
formed. There is nothing to be wondered at 
in this. It is only an example illustrative of 
the general law of evolution. Were such a 
supposition a fact, it would not be possible 
for the Japanese to remain as a nation, for then 
their original vitality must be gone. No na- 
tional life can rise or fall in one day. Every 

[36] 






NEW JAPAN AS OLD AS EVER 



nation must work out its own destiny, either 
for growth or decay, in a proper course of time. 

Sec. 2. Secret of the Japanese Progress: 
The progress of Japan, as it has been stated 
at the outset, is no mushroom growth. It is no 
chance turn of fortune's wheel. It rests only 
upon a natural law of evolution. It may be 
explained partly by the characteristics of the 
Japanese people, and partly by Japan's national 
principle evolutionized from that of Old Japan, 
with which they introduce and assimilate the 
learning and science of the United States and 
Europe. 

If we turn to European history we shall 
find one law to which there is absolutely no ex- 
ception. Any nation, no matter what its con- 
stitution, form of government, race or nation- 
ality may be, will prosper only so long as it keeij^ 
itself swimming with the great current df 
human thought ; to lose sight of this law in- 
volves national ruin; There is no exception to 
this rule. Spain and Portugal, because of their 
most vigorous adventurers, the discoverers of 
America, were feared and commanded respect, 
but maintained their power scarcely two cen- 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

turies. Their power fell as quickly as it rose. 
The same phenomenon may be observed in the 
case of Holland. Turkey was a great power 
when she destroyed the Western Roman Em- 
pire and took Constantinople. She is to-day 
like a sick man in a hospital, and is only saved 
from final dissolution by the disagreements of 
European powers. But it would be wrong in 
the case of any of these countries to lay the 
blame for their decay upon the shoulders of the 
people. In every case a grossly superstitious 
form of religion, administered by avaricious ec- 
clesiastics and an ignorant hierarchy, had com- 
bined with the ostentatious courts and despotic 
aristocracy to poison the wells of national life. 
Russia imitated the bad example of these coun- 
tries. She turned her back knowingly on the 
modern civilization and enlightenment that was 
surrounding her, and the result could be easily 
foreseen. Russia was trying to swim against 
the stream of human enlightenment and civili- 
zation; she could not well escape from the 
moral and physical punishment that eventually 
followed from such a course of action. 

If you will now turn to the history of Japan 

[38] 



NEW JAPAN AS OLD AS EVER 

you will be able to see at once why it is that 
this empire has been so successful in all her un- 
dertakings and brought herself up to the pres- 
ent eminence she occupies. It is because Japan 
has acted on the national principle of "adopting 
what is best from every country and entering 
into an honorable rivalry in culture and civili- 
zation with all the nations of the world." 



[39] 




LIFE OF JA?-^ 



cHAPTEnani 



^^Vi 



"If devils from hell visited my realm, they should be 
treated like angels from heaven as long as they behaved 
like gentlemen." — Shogun lyeyasu. 



Religions in Japan 

Sbc. 3. Introduction of Christianity: In the 
sixteenth century, when Spain, Portugal and 
Holland opened intercourse with Japan, they 
brought with them their Christian faith. The 
most famous of the Jesuit missionaries, St. 
Francis Xavier, tells us in his memoirs that 
though the Spaniards interested themselves in 
the propagation of their faith, wherever they 
went they had found no country in which it 
was embraced so readily and willingly as in 
Japan. In the course of some forty years, over 
two millions of converts had been made, and 
10 hostile collision between the 





RELIGIONS 



promoters of the new religions and the de- 
fenders of the Shintoism or Buddhism. In| 
the so-called persecution of Christianity, the ^J 
blame was not upon the Japanese, but upon the 
conduct of those who professed Christianity, 
It may be interesting to note the fact that the :^ 
dreadful tales about Christianity were told by ? 
the Dutchmen, who were ambitious to monop- 
olize the Japanese trade. They were endeavor- 
ing by every means in their power to accom- 
plish this end, whether by driving other for- 
eigners from the land or courting favor of the 
Shogun. According to the annals, the Dutch- 
men had convinced the government with plaus- 
ible arguments that Spain, Portugal, England, 
and other European countries were not propa- 
gating the Christian faith for the sake of reli- 
gion, but with the primary motive of promoting 
their territorial aggrandizement. When the 
Shogun was about to heed the awful tale, 
Dutchmen lost no time in causing their own 
country to send a special ambassador to the 
Shogun. That official brought a royal message 
besides a token of royal good will consisting of 
3Stly presents. Meantime, competition and 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

jealousy were progressing among foreign 
traders. 

Si)c. 4. The Interdiction of Christianity: 
However, Christianity and the trade also, 
was freely permitted to go where it pleased in 
the empire, and to travel by land and sea, from 
one end of it to the other. The people listened 
to the teachings of the missionaries, who were 
friendly and superior men. Had the work be- 
gun by Xavier — that humble, virtuous, dis- 
interested, and benevolent man — and his com- 
panion, been left in the hands of men like them- 
selves, the history of Old Japan might be vastly 
different. Very many of the ecclesiastics, 
mingling with their respective parties, excess- 
ively indulged their pride, avarice, and extor- 
tions at the close of the sixteenth century. 
Even native Christians are said to have been 
both shocked and disgusted when they saw that 
their spiritual instructors treated with open 
contempt the institutions and customs of the 
country, and insulted the high officials of the 
government by studied indignities. At last, the 
Shogun deemed it intolerable to permit the 
laws and customs of his country to be treated 

[42] 




' i J \ 



RELIGIONS IN JAPAN 

with contempt by a set of presumptuous for- 
eigners, who had neither the good feehng nor l>^^iv 
the good manners to repay the kindness they had 
received with the decency of common civiHty. 
Nor was this all. The Japanese had found cer- 
tain treasonable letters from time to time on 
board of foreign ships, addressed by the natives 
to foreign kings. It may be difficult to ascer- 
tain with certainty all the details of the con- 
spiracy, but of the conspiracy itself there can 
be no doubt. 

While the matters concerning Christianity 
were going from bad to worse, it was found 
that the port of Nagasaki was pledged by trait- 
orous Japanese Christians as the security for a 
loan to be used by these Japanese to help put 
their country into the hands of the foreign 
countrymen. 

Se;c, 5. Justification of the Christian Inter- 
diction: The result was that toward the end of 
the seventeenth century the proclamation was 
decreed that "the whole foreign race, with their 
mothers, nurses, and whatever belong to them 
shall be banished forever." Thus the persecu- 
tions of the Christians began, and was rigor- 

[43] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 



ously pursued by the Shogun. In this action of 
the Shogun, the Japanese claim justification on 
the grounds of the spirit and attitude of the 
foreigners themselves. While the vigorous 
persecution was going on in Japan, religious 
wars were being waged everywhere in Europe. 
The chief persecutions for difference in Christian 
faith may be witnessed in the fierce religious 
war of the Reformation in Germany, the wars 
of the Huguenots, and the massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew's Day in France, and in the establish- 
ment of the Spanish Inquisition. The Shoguns 
have ample justification in asserting that the 
situation of the country demanded the procla- 
mation of an interdict determinedly and 
promptly ; otherwise, it is obvious that the coun- 
try would have been partitioned among the 
ambitious foreign powers then represented 
throughout the land. During the rule of Sho- 
gun lyeyasu, Christianity as a whole was in- 
terdicted, and all Christians were summa- 
rily tried and found guilty of belonging 
to the evil sect. The Samurai could hack at 

wiU, and wholesale slaughter was rife in the 

f 1 - 






RELIGIONS IN JAPAN 

land until the close of the seventeenth century, 
when there was not left a missionary. 

Sec. 6. Japan Isolated From the Rest of the 
World: During the 258 years of this Tokugawa 
dynasty, the Shoguns' policy was one of inter- 
diction and exclusion from intercourse with 
all European nations. European powers 
sought intercourse, but without avail. They 
for a time sought patiently ; but at times, man- 
ifestly sought to awe by a display of national 
power. Their military demonstrations and 
naval manoeuvers were frequent and calculated 
to impress the great importance of their mis- 
sion, but all in vain. Such terrorizing or 
threatening processes upon the Japanese people 
by European power, or by a combination of 
powers, worked worse and worse, and only 
served to strengthen the walls of exclusion. 
The Shoguns fortified the harbor, and grew 
more and more suspicious of all mankind; 
meantime, the following decree was kept posted 
everywhere in the realm : i'>^i 

"Decreed : Christianity has been prohibited for many 
years. Therefore, if there is any suspected person, it 
must, be reported. Rewards will be as follows : 

[45] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

"For information against a father or worker of the 
Christian religion, 500 pieces of silver; for information 
against an assistant in the work of Christianity, 300 
pieces of silver; for information against any one who 
has secretly returned to Christian belief, 300 pieces of 
silver; for information against a common believer in 
the same village, 100 pieces of silver. The above re- 
wards will be given. Even though it be a common in 
the same village, in some special cases a reward of 500 
pieces of silver will be given. If any hidden Christian 
is discovered by some one from another place, the chief 
of the village, and even the company of five men whom 
the accused related will be punished as accomplices." 

Sec. 7. Christianity Never Died: Thus Cath- 
olicism was systematically and vigorously inter- 
dicted and disappeared from the religious life of 
Japan. Yet, strange to say, the Christian faith 
was still found alive, centuries later. When the 
author was on his way to China from Japan, in 
connection with the military administration dur- 
ing the war with China, he was obliged to land 
on the island of Tsu Shima, in the Korean 
Straits. In company with a lieutenant and two 
gendarmes, he entered a house on this dismal is- 
land. There at once he recognized a Bible and a 
little crucifix on a small shelf or altar in the prin- 

[46] 



RELIGIONS IN JAPAN 

cipal room. Knowing that there had never been 
a Christian missionary in any of the Japanese 
possessions since the vigilance of the interdict 
went into effect, centuries before, he asked the 
lady where and how she got these things. "The 
faith," she said, "was handed down from parent 
to child, by word of mouth, but these religious 
objects were only brought into view when a 
person who knew where they were secreted 
was going to die, and then, soon after, they 
were again secreted by the one to whom en- 
trusted. Thus we preserved them." 

Sec. 8. The Japanese Native Religions: 
Shintoism and Buddhism are inseparably 
woven together, the former being the warp 
and the latter the filling. Shintoism literally 
means "the ways of God." From its annals 
we learn that at first all was without form, and 
void; that the confused nebula began to move 
and condense, and the heavens separated from 
the earth. In both heaven and earth gods were 
evolved, among which was Izanagi, who sepa- 
rated the land from the waters, and from whose 
left eye emanated the Sun Goddess Amaterasu. 
This goddess is the center of Japan's Shinto- 



[47] 



\ 




LIFE OF JAPAN 



ism, and the ancestor of the Japanese race. 
Amaterasu, seeing that disorder prevailed 
among the earth gods, sent down her grand- 
son, Ninigi, who was the great-grandfather of 
Emperor Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan. 
Every Japanese from his birth is placed by his 
parents under the protection of some Shinto 
deity, whose foster child he becomes. How- 
ever, Shintoism imposed no distinctive moral 
code or duty, and the teaching or professing 
of any theory of the destiny of man, or of 
moral obligation, was left to the priests of 
Buddha. Buddhism, in view of its Nirvana, 
promulgated a code of morals against stealing 
lying, intemperance, murder and adultery, 
purely upon spiritual motives. Funeral rites are 
conducted, with few exceptions, according to 
the ceremonial of the Buddha sect. It is only 
in recent years that burial according to the an- 
cient ritual of Shintoism has been revived, after 
almost total disuse during some twelve cen- 
turies. Burial by interment and cremation are 
both practiced in Japan, the form being left 
entirely to the option of the parties concerned. 
Since the United States opened Japan, a short 



[48] 





RELIGIONS IN JAPAN 

half century ago, Christianity has been again 
introduced, and is making such great progress 
that it threatens to eventually become the re- 
ligion of the Japanese people. During the last 
thirty-nine years' reign of the present Em- 
peror, Christianity has reaped a harvest of 
about 55,000 Catholics, about 70,000 Protest- 
ants, and about 27,000 Greek Catholics of the 
Orthodox Russian Church, It is beginning to 
be appreciated among the Japanese people, that 
the highest ideals of civilization accompany 
Christianity. 



FROM A JAPANESE TYPICAL CHRISTIAN 
LADY. 

Dear Friend, Dr. Miyakawa : 

"If life were only living, 

And death were only death, 
Would life be worth the living? 

Would men praise God for breath? 

Ah, No ! Far sweeter, dearer, 

To toil, to pray, and fast. 
If so the Lord draw nearer 

And lend His grace at last." 

Madam Domoto. 



[49] 



,-./>" 



rMMt j^jpg Qp, JAPAN 



CHAPTER III 




"To rush into the thick of battle and to be slain in it 
is easy enough, and the merest churl is equal to the 
task; but it is true courage to live when it is right to 
live, and to die only when it is right to die." — Mito 
Komon. 



The Japanese Moral Ethics 

Sec. 9. Bushido : Describing the pecu- 
liar characteristics of the Japanese, men and 
women, we see in the Old Japan the castes sys- 
tem of soldier or samurai class, and the agricul- 
turists, artisans, merchants, eta, the latter be- 
ing the lowest, and considered outcasts, whose 
ancestors must have been traitors or prisoners of 
war. This class distinction became marked under 
the feudal government. Yet there was nothing 
bad about it according to circumstance of the 
age, as the whole idea was that the good of the 
state should be the first object. Even the peas- 
ant of yesterday might become a member of 

[50] 



THE JAPANESE MORAL ETHICS 

the favored class of to-morrow by attaining 
distinction in his individual accomplishment as 
a soldier. The soldier was an educator of the 
people as well as a protector of the disfavored 
classes. 

Emperors Shomu and Kotoku, in their mili- 
tary conscription, imposed on the whole people 
the duty of the soldier, and the agriculturists, 
artisans, or merchants, were made the founda- 
tion of future nobles, peers, and even Sho- 
guns. Meanwhile, the ideal and conception 
of the true soldier took its name of Bushido, 
or soldier's way, and was inculcated into the 
unwritten moral codes and transmitted from 
age to age. The Bushido, the underlying prin- 
ciple of the physical and moral existence of 
very Japan itself, with all its peculiar spontanei- 
ties, is vigorously enforced. The Bushido or 
soldierly spirit — the creature of all known ele- 
ments of Japanese character, in turn became 
the creator of all the teachings of the sobrie- 
ties, hopefulness, love, kindness, loyalty, faith, 
truth, politeness, pity, literature, science, arts, 
religions, education, civilization. It is by no 
means a national religion, for we have a reli- 

[51] 



'tU 



ti 



uSfii 





LIFE OF JAPAN 



gion — Shintoism; also, Buddhism, which to- 
gether with the Shinto rehgion or ancestor 
worship, has certain creeds and certain cere- 
monies necessary to its practice. But the 
Bushido has none of these characteristics of a re- 
ligion. It is more than a religion. It stimulates 
and animates the Japanese so that without being 
a true Bushi, he cannot be a religious person. 
Nothing was esteemed more disgraceful in a 
true Japanese than to act contrary to or in diso- 
bedience to the unwritten code of Bushido. 

Sec. io. Suicide as the Highest Conception 
of Japanese Individuality : Therefore, Japanese 
domestic and military pride and emulation has 
been the all-absorbing spirit and ideal of the Jap- 
anese social and national character, and the Bush- 
ido, or soldierly zeal and self-sacrificing fidelity 
of the Japanese Bushi or soldiers, embodies the 
highest conception of Japanese individuality. So 
thoroughly was and is this Bushido fused into 
the Japanese very being that military disgrace of 
any kind is atoned for or obviated by hara- 
kiri, or self-destruction. Hara-kiri is suicide 
by self-disembowelment, and was resorted to 
by and in every military rank as a proof of 




/ % 




[52] 



THE JAPANESE MORAL ETHICS 



fidelity or to prevent disgrace. Even Shoguns 
committed hara-kiri, for instance, Nobunaga; 
and when Takatoki, the last of the Hojio Sho- 
guns, was overthrown, 3,000 of his vassals fell 
upon their swords. Forty-seven Bushi, the re- 
tainers of Lord Asano, when their master was 
sentenced to death unjustly through spitework 
prompted by Lord Moronao, performed their 
famous deeds of revenge upon Moronao. They 
carried his head to the grave of their master 
Asano, where the forty-seven Bushi committed 
hara-kiri. 

Se;c. 1 1 . Justification of the Suicide Custom : 
In the olden times, criminals were put to 
death by the legal executioners, but a Bushi 
was put to hara-kiri. This form of death is 
different from any suicide which has been 
usually known in western countries. Hara- 
kiri is the natural outcome of loyal and honor- 
able sentiments, and it must be always so rec- 
ognized in the Japanese cases. The meaning 
of the hara-kiri idea may be somewhat ex- 
plained by the like deed of Cato, the younger 
tribune of the honest Romans, when he took his 
own life to escape the reprobation of a polluted 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

sovereignty. So also was the death of Aris- 
tides the Just, and of Demosthenes, the first 
orator of the western world, who withstood the 
temptation of Macedonian wealth, and saved 
his country by suicide. The immortal teacher 
of Grecian philosophy, one of the most shining 
examples of western virtues, Socrates, com- 
mitted suicide by drinking the fatal hemlock; 
and Hannibal closed his eyes to his country's 
woes by taking his own life. 

Sec. 12. Fruit of the Japanese Character- 
Making: It was this Bushido spirit that won 
Japan the war with the Mongolians, after their 
devastation of Europe, which they invaded 
during the Middle Ages. By it Japan saved 
Europe at last, when Europe did not know who 
saved them. To this spirit the Japanese people 
attributed their successive victories in the wars 
with Korea and China, during the Fuedal Ages, 
and more recently, the Chinese-Japanese war. 
This Bushido spirit became more and more dis- 
tinct to the eyes of every one in the Japanese 
war with Russia, when the Japanese, animated 
with the spirit of Bushido, displayed an unpar- 
alleled example of human bravery in the attacks 



54] 



THE JAPANESE MORAL ETHICS 

Upon Port Arthur. Another example of this 
spirit is shown when Captain Sakurai and his 
followers, on board the "Kinshimaru" sought 
voluntary death to prevent military disgrace, 
rather than surrender to their enemies. Com- 
mander Shiina, when his transport was fol- 
lowed by the Russian Vladivostock warships, 
and an hour was given them to decide whether 
they would surrender or not, told his followers : 
"My brave soldiers, our ship is now at the 
mercy of the enemy and is now irrevocably 
doomed. * * * pQj. ^g^ there remains 
nothing but to fight and die on board and face 
death. * * * It is then that we shall show 
them what manner of men we Japanese soldiers 
are." And all went to the bottom while hum- 
ming the national song. 

. Se)c. 13. Bushido in Olden Time as Well as 
in New Bra: Comparing that Bushido spirit, 
which has so thoroughly permeated the common 
soldiers, bluejackets, and coolies of to-day with 
that of the very remotest period in ancient 
Japan, the zeal of the Japanese soldiers is to-day 
as great as ever. The head of the Otomo clan 
when instructing his soldiers in the ancient time, 

[55] 



LIFE OF JAPAN -^f**^ 

told them : "You must die by the side of your 
Great Lord, and never turn your back to your 
foe. If you die at sea, let your body sink in 
the water; if you die on the hillside, let it be 
outstretched on the mountain grass." In the 
twelfth century, when the brave Yoshitsune, 
the brother of the first Shogun Yoritomo, was 
aimed at with an arrow's point by an in- 
genious marksman and warrior of the Heike 
clan, Sato Tadanobu threw his body in front 
of his master and was killed, in order to save 
him. Two centuries later, Mitta Yoshisada's 
brave Bushi did the same. Again in the seven- 
teenth century, Okubo Hikosayemon, being se- 
verely wounded, placed his own body in a posi- 
tion to shield his lord, Shogun lyeyasu. So 
many soldiers volunteered their death to shield 
their regiment commander, Ohara, when he was 
covered by the Russian fire at the foot of Nan- 
sen Hill. Commander Hirose, when attacking 
Port Arthur, faced death calmly to save the life 
of his comrades. General Nogi, commander-in- 
chief in the siege of Port Arthur, rejoiced over 
the death of his own son, who so bravely faced 
death in an attack on a fort at Port Arthur. 



[56] 



THE JAPANESE MORAL ETHICS 

Madam Nogi, upon hearing of her son's death, 
sent congratulations to her husband on the self- 
sacrifice, after the manner of a son of Bushi, 
The practice of hara-kiri has recently been dis- 
continued and there is now a law against it. 
Still the same old characteristic Japanese spirit 
survives now as in the past, the Bushido, the 
life of the Japanese people. 

Sec 14. The Japanese Swords: Examples of 
the manifestation of this animating character- 
istic are, throughout every life in Japanese his- 
tory, well known and conspicuous, yet one more 
example which came in very recently from the 
Americans and Europeans accompanying the 
Japanese army in Manchuria. After the battle 
of Chu-Iyien-Cheng, Lieutenant Inouye found 
among the heap of dead soldiers a Russian offi- 
cer, mortally wounded and tormented by a burn- 
ing thirst. He was trying to quench his thirst by 
drinking his own blood. Inouye, seeing this, the 
usual Bushido spirit prompted him to approach 
the Russian, and he spoke kindly to him in the 
Russian language, and gave him a drink of 
water out of his own flask. The Russian tried 
to thank him, but he could not speak. All that 



[57] 



iiifi 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

he could do was to unbuckle his sword and take 
out his photograph, offering them as a mute 
token to his benefactor. Inouye took the photo- 
graph but returned the sword, saying that he 
could not deprive a dying bushi (the soul of the 
soldier) of his sword. 

Sec. 15. Analogy of Bushido : The teachings 
of the Bushido are an unwritten system of 
thought and therefore cannot be classified or 
analyzed. But we can set forth the main teach- 
ings of the Bushido, an honest observance of 
which will make a man a tolerably good Bushi. 

1st. A Bushi must be loyal to his sovereign 
and faithful to his master. He must cultivate 
personal courage and be well trained in fenc- 
ing, archery, and horsemanship and their mod- 
ern equivalents. 

2d. A Bushi must be honest and chaste, 
simple and temperate, a keeper of faith and true 
to his word. He shall be polite in his behavior 
and never intentionally rude to others. 

3d. A Bushi shall be pitiful and ever ready 
to help the weak and those who are in distress. 
He shall cultivate a literary taste and never 
despise the claims of learning. 

[58] 




THE JAPANESE MORAL ETHICS 

We cannot attempt to detail fully the teach- 
ings of Bushido in this book, but even with 
these three rules, if the reader will give him- 
self the trouble to think out the full meaning, 
he will come to the conclusion that there is 
in the English language an exact equivalent 
for the Japanese word "Bushi" and the word is 
"Gentleman;" "The American Gentleman," in 
the fullest sense of the word, is a Japanese 
Bushi. 

Sec. 1 6. The Japanese Moral Bthics Never 
Die: We have many a time read predictions 
made by distinguished and reputable scholars 
in Europe and America that the moral ethics of 
Old Japan will decay into oblivion as its castles, 
temples, and shrines have done. Even promi- 
nent Americans, being very intimate friends 
of the author, have often declared : "You wait 
fifty years or so, and these Japanese character- 
istics will change, and reach the same stage 
where we Americans are." While desiring the 
realization of such a prediction, we must re- 
member that a pyramid rises only from its own 
ashes. "The kingdom of God is within you." 
The seeds of the kingdom, permeating the 




[59] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

Japanese heart, blossomed within the Bushido. 
It may be said that the worship of Christ and 
the worship of the almighty dollar will divide 
the world between them. On which side will 
Bushido enlist? In the language of 
Nitobe, "As there is no dogma or form- 
ula to defend it, it is willing to die at the 
first gust of the morning breeze. But a total 
extermination — never." The system of Stoic- 
ism is dead, but its virtue is alive; its energy 
and vitality are felt through many channels of 
life in the philosophy of western nations. So 
with Bushido. Ages after, its odor will come 
floating as the benediction of the air. 



[60] 



THE JAPANESE WOMAN 



CHAPTER IV 



"The Samurai-wife must be chaste as Lucrece, faith- 
ful as Penelope." — Mrs. Hugh Fraser. 



The Japanese Woii\an 

Sec. 17. Influence of Buddhism, Confucian- 
ism and Bushido : The oldest records of Japan 
invariably relate that the underlying principle of 
the Japanese woman is her spiritual training. 
Respect for the deities, purity, resoluteness, 
faithfulness, and loyalty make up the backbone 
of Japanese womanhood. Buddhism and Confu- 
cianism have exercised a very strong influence 
in the moulding of character. We admit that 
they have done a great deal of good in the train- 
ing of the women, but they have done a 
great deal of evil as well ; for they infuse the idea 
that women are sinful by nature, and that 
they are inferior by birth. They teach that 
women to be virtuous must be represented as 



[61] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 





ignorant and that any appearance of possessing 
knowledge or activity is criticised as a blot on 
her womanhood and so condemned. This evil 
influence is in a way counteracted by the 
chivalry or Bushido spirit, which acts to check 
and balance the demoralization of the Japa- 
nese women. In fact, the Bushido spirit 
permeates both sexes of the Japanese people. 
Each of the wives and daughters of the military 
nobility carries a halberd in her belt. She is 
taught to use it either in defense of her honor 
or to commit self-destruction. 

The author's family is of the military nobil- 
ity, or Samurai caste. It may not be out of 
place to state a little personal incident. When 
a school boy in Tokyo, only six years old, his 
most faithful schoolmate received a medal, and 
he got none. His dear mother then told him 
he had better commit hara-kiri, which even at 
^that young age he thought strongly of doing. 

he Japanese regarding their women in their 

relation to Bushido, observe that Bushido 

being primarily a teaching intended for the 

masculine sex, the virtues it prized in women 

♦were naturally far from being feminine. 

[62] 




>\ 






THE JAPANESE WOMAN 

Young girls, therefore, were trained 
their feelings, to indurate their nerves, 
manipulate weapons, especially the 
handled sword called Naginata, so as 
to hold their own against unexpected odds. Yet 
the primary motive for the exercise of this mar- 
tial character was not for use in the field; it 
was two-fold — personal and domestic. Woman 
owning no suzerain of her own, formed her 
own bodyguard. With her weapon she 
guarded her personal sanctity with as much zeal 
as her husband did his master's. The domestic 
utility of her war-like training was in the edu- 
cation of her sons. The accomplishments of 
our women were not acquired for show or so- 
cial ascendancy. They were for home diversion ; 
.nd if shown in social parties, they were as the 
attributes of a hostess; in other words, as a 
part of the household contrivance for hospital- 
ity. Domesticity guided their education. It may 
be said without fear of contradiction that the 
accomplishments of the women of Old Japan, 
,be they martial or pacific in character, were 
,.ainly intended for home; and, however far 
they might roam, they never lost sight of the 



[63] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

hearth the center. It was to maintain its 
honor and integrity that they slaved, drudged, 
and gave up their Hves. Night and day, in 
tones at once firm and tender, brave and plain- 
tive, they sang to their little nests. A man's 
character is formed and moulded when he is 
young, principally while at home under the 
care of his parents. Home education is the 
ground- work ; no man can escape without 
more or less of its influence, and this education 
is the predominant work of the mothers. It 
may be stated without fear of contradiction 
that the Bushido spirit of the Japanese is the 
work of the mother. 

Sec. i8. Woman's Bducation in Old Japan: 
In this connection let us investigate the Jap- 
anese ideas regarding woman's education in 
both old and new Japan. Even under the 
regime of the feudal system, many books had 
been written about woman's education, and 
among them the "Onna Daigaku," or Great 
Learning for Women, is conspicuous. The im- 
portant requirements for girls in ancient times 
were the arts of spinning, weaving, sewing, 
washing, and preparing food. It was the chief 



[64] 



THE JAPANESE WOMAN 

duty of a girl living in the parental home to 
practice filial piety toward her father and 
mother. But after marriage her chief duty 
was to honor her father-in-law and mother-in- 
law, to honor them beyond her own father and 
mother, and to tend them with every practice 
of filial piety. 

A woman has no particular lord. She must 
look to her husband as her lord, and must serve 
him with all worship and reverence, not despis- 
ing or thinking lightly of him. The lifelong 
duty of a woman is obedience. The foremost 
maladies that affect the female mind are in- 
docility, discontent, slander, jealousy, and silli- 
ness. Without doubt, these five maladies in- 
fest seven or eight out of every ten women, 
and it is from these that arises the inferiority 
of women to men. A woman should cure them 
by self-inspection and self-reproach. 

Sec 19. Ideals of the Japanese Woman of 
T 0-Day: Regarding woman's morals, a recent 
native work, written in Japanese, of the late Mr. 
Fukuzawa, on "Shin-Onna-Daigaku," literally 
"Revised Great Learning for Women," is a 
good reference. About ideals of the Japanese 



[65] 




5^ 



woman of to-day the author would Hke to 
state to you, as he states to the young ladies of 
his native country : That the great responsibility 
of educating children devolves upon both 
parents. The mother should give her own milk 
to her child, and never leave it to the hands 
of a nurse, unless for urgent reasons. When 
a girl is growing up the best attention should 
be given. to her physical development. To re- 
strain her from taking fuller exercise for fear 
of getting her fine clothes soiled is wrong. 

Give your daughter plain, neat clothing, and 
let her indulge in exercise freely. To give food 
to a girl is necessary, but to expect her to de- 
velop on that only is a mistake. On the con- 
trary, good food without proper exercise is 
rather injurious. For girls of all standing, rich 
or poor, high or low, language, letter-writ- 
ing, calculation, the keeping of accounts, and 
needlework should be indispensable and taught 
together with the arts of housekeeping and 
cooking. As to higher education, it is just as 
useful as to boys. Physics ought to be the 
foundation for all other learning. Strictly 
speaking, there is no study that it is useless for 




[66] 




-C L 



mi 



THE JAPANESE WOMAN | 



girls to follow, except military science. But ^ 
there are burdens peculiar to women, and on 
that account they have less time to devote to i 
learning than have men. Moreover, the educa- 
tion of the sex has been comparatively neglected, 
and it may be all too sudden to expect from 
them the same accomplishments that are ob- 
tained by the other sex. What is wanted at 
the present stage of our national progress is all 
that is practicable, and this consists in impart- 
ing general knowledge on physics, physiology, 
geography, and history, besides some knowl- 
edge of law and economy. This last knowledge 
may sound rather strange, but the lack of it, it 
should be remembered, is the real cause of the 
lack of influence possessed by women in society. 
Grace is the first virtue of the sex ; and, there- 
fore, any conduct or manner savoring of rough- 
ness, rudeness, pride, and contentiousness 
should be carefully avoided. For the moral cul- 

j7 ^.re of girls, there are proper books to read, ; 

'""' ahd good stories to hear, but the conduct and 
example of their parents in daily life will re- 
main most effective. The attitude of the pa- 
rents in manners and ideas is the most effective 







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LIFE OF JAPAN 

agent in making a home cheerful and happy. 
They lead, and the daughters follow. Thus 
great are the duties of parents, and so submis- 
sive is the nature of young maidens. 

Se;c. 20. Ideal of the Japanese Happy Home: 
One of the elements that constitutes a happy 
home is frankness among the members of the 
family. What children say to their mother 
should not be concealed from their father ; and 
what the father says to them should be made 
known to their mother. Concealment destroys 
straightforwardness and is apt to foster a 
scheming character, which is to be avoided by 
all means. When a girl has attained to a 
proper age she marries, and this is the greatest 
event in her life. In foreign countries the par- 
ties marry upon their own choice after some 
time of mutual acquainance. But in Japan it 
becomes the duty of the parents to find suit- 
able matches for their children. Much time 
is spent in making investigations and in delib- 
erate consideration. When the parents have 
come to a decision, they ask their daughter's 
will. The right to decide remains with the 
latter. The parents simply seek out a suitable 



[68] 



THE JAPANESE WOMAN 

consort, and propose him to their child. It is 
for the daughter or son to accept or reject. The 
parents have no right to compel, and if the pro- 
posal is rejected they can only seek another. 
Though it would be very convenient if men 
and women had free social intercourse and 
made their own selections, yet at the present 
stage of our social life there are far greater dis- 
advantages than advantages in following such 
a course. Let these developments remain for 
some years to come before they are realized. 
Marriage is the union of man and woman, in 
which they solemnly contract with each other 
for sharing all the pleasures as well as all the 
pains of life. A single life may give much ease, 
but far greater are the pleasures of a married 
life, and so are also the corresponding troubles. 
S:EC. 21. The Japanese Wife: The wife should 
know what her husband is doing outside and 
what is his situation in business, so that in any 
emergency she can settle his affairs without 
trouble and loss. Hence, necessity arises that she 
should have a knowledge of finance and econ- 
omy. No amount of mere accomplishment will 
make women ladies if they have not higher 



[69] 




LIFE OF JAPA]^, 

ideals and intellect. Even in their every-day be- 
havior and words, they should be very careful 
A single word that cannot be properly uttered 
with self-respect will degrade their womanhood. 
To maintain her position high, there is only one 
way, and that is for woman to respect herself 
and not to look down upon others, whoever they 
may be. A happy home is the joint work of hus- 
band and wife, and there can be no question of 
difference in the relative rights and positions. 
Mutual love, respect, assistance, and confidence 
should find them together all through their life. 
It is part of the wife's grace to be obedient to her 
husband in all things right and reasonable. But 
if the husband is at fault, it is her duty to res- 
cue him and turn him right by mild and ef- 
fective means. 

Such is the life of a Japanese woman. It is 
well said that the worth of a State is the worth 
"of the individuals composing it. The great 
drama which Japan has been destined to play 
in the world's theatre with such unprecedented 
success may be largely credited to the Japanese 
women. mi i \ 



m 





THE JAPANESE WOMAM' 

'HUSBAND aWIJ WIF 

Wife :— 

"Though other women's husbands ride 

Along the road in proud array, 
My husband, up the rough hillside 

On foot must wend his weary way. 

"The grievous sight with bitter pain 
My bosom fills, and many a tear 

Steals down my cheek, and I would fain 
Do aught to help my husband, dear. 

"Come ! Take the mirror and the veil. 
My mother's parting gifts to me ; 

In barter they must sure avail 
To buy an horse to carry thee." 

Husband : — 

"And I should purchase me an horse, 

Must not my wife still sadly walk? 
No, no ! though stony is our course, 
We'll trudge along and sweetly talk." 




LIFE OF JAPAN 



CHAPTER V 



"I've seen the bogie's veritable shape : — It's merely 
withered grass." — Bassio. 



Japanese Customs and Habits 

Sec. 22. Japanese at Home: It is the custom 
of the Japanese people to keep their famous col- 
lections of pictures, potteries and other bric-a- 
brac in their storehouse or Kura. These are ex- 
hibited on different occasions and according to 
the personal tastes of their guests, or to the sea- 
sons, or even the changes of the weather. They 
are ever anxious to arrange the colors of the 
various objects in the room in conformity with 
the tints of the exterior, strictly observing har- 
monies and contrasts. The Japanese are very 
fond of gardens. With the garden it is indis- 
pensable to have ponds and rustic bridges, little 
mountains and hills, diminutive waterfalls, 
meandering paths, ball-like trimmed shrubs, 

[72] 



JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND HABITS 

root-lifted pines, and stationary lamps made of 
stone. The dimensions of the grounds may be 
larger or smaller according to circumstances, 
and so are the landscapes, but they always have 
the gardens. The poorest Japanese in the 
crowded city, either at the corner of the entrance 
space or even in the room, will have his minia- 
ture garden fixed up in a box. 

At the table, or zen, the grandfather and 
grandmother must in every case be served first, 
i'here is no exception to this custom. Next 
come the mother and father, lastly the children. 
It is the custom of the Japanese always to ob- 
serve as much formality as possible between 
elder and younger sisters or brothers. Elder 
sisters or elder brothers must always be con- 
sulted as to their wishes and conveniences. The 
younger ones always give way before the older 
ones and pay due respect, either in or out of the 
household. And the Japanese parents have a 
jealous care of their boys and girls. Restriction 
is far better than unlicensed liberty, and poverty 
with purity better than wealth with infamy. 
Then they have not many chances to sing: 

"Where is my wandering boy to-night?" 
[73] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 



^■,-.^-^i^>:- 




Sec. 23. Peculiar Habits of the Japanese: 
To state all the peculiar habits of the Japa- 
nese would take too long; therefore, we will 
have to mention some of them that do not quite 
conform to those of the Americans. For in- 
stance, Japanese merchants display their wares 
on mats, and both vendors and purchasers sit 
and drink tea while trading. They use the bead 
frame or abacus for calculating. The left is the 
side and seat of honor. In walking they will take 
the left side to make a passage for the parties 
coming toward them. Japanese family names 
precede individual names, for instance they say : 
Bryan, Jennings William Mr., and not Mr. 
William Jennings Bryan. White and not black 
is the color for mourning and funerals. They 
have the habit of depreciating their own and 
praising what belongs to others, for example, 
"This dinner is neither nice nor plentiful, but 
please partake;" "My wife is an ugly dunce;" 
•"My son is a stupid fellow." "Your wife is an 
honorable lady." "Your son is a fine boy." 
When the Japanese go out on strike, show your 
hearty kindness and prove your sincerest sym- 
pathy and profound truth ; but if the Americans 



[74] 




■^^ 



JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND HABITS 




'I strike, give them more money. If Japanese 
are suspicious of your pretentions, the kindness 
of ostensible sympathy, you will never settle 
your differences. Especially if you speak or 
show any intention that you will pay them extra 
Imoney or increased wages you will make your 
^differences most extreme. However, if they 
understand your kind heart they will return to 
work, and work like beavers, night and day, 
without expecting compensation. The Japa- 
nese laborers do not care for your rights, your 
money or your contracts, but your duty, your 
faith, loyalty, patience, kindness, courtesy, fair- 
ness, honesty and truth. When invited to din- 
ner, tea and cake is served first; the soup, of 
course, afterward. Americans in speaking with 
a person look into their eyes, but the Japanese 
avoid doing that. To call a person to come, or 
to command him to come, we force our hand 
from us, palm forward. Men always precede 
women. Women always take off their hats in 
the meeting-houses, theatres, and such places. 
The Japanese ladies object to showing their form, 
using every possible means to conceal the figure, 
wearing the large sash or bow in the back with 



'^^ 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

the ends extending to the hem of the kimono; 
whereas American ladies, as a rule, do not ob- 
ject to showing the form. Japanese writing 
and printing reads downward, progressing to 
the left instead of to the right. When striking 
an antagonist, Japanese give a side "swipe" in- 
stead of a forward punch. The Japanese do 
not like curly hair and will try every scheme to 
straighten it. The Japanese do not kiss, either 
between parents or children or between hus- 
band and wife. The Japanese people believe 
that early to bed and early to rise makes them 
healthier, wealthier and wiser. Theatres com- 
mence early in the morning, about eight o'clock, 
and close after sunset, families taking their 
children and lunches with them. When meet- 
ing or saluting each other, the Japanese bow 
submissively two or three times instead of shak- 
ing hands. In using a plane or saw the Japanese 
force it toward them instead of pushing it for- 
ward. Japanese ladies turn their toes toward 
each other, while walking. They lift the front 
of the dresses instead of the rear. You are ac- 
customed to think the Japanese habits are pe- 
culiar; the Japanese also consider your habits 
peculiar. 

[76] 



JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND HABITS 

Let US add that the custom of undervaluing 
one another because of the difference of opin- 
ion or habits is bad. American travelers com- 
ing back from Japan will inform you about the 
nudity of the Japanese rural women. Japanese 
from America also talk about the "exhibition 
of living pictures" of some American women. 
An American merchant has informed you that 
a Japanese trader is apt not to keep his promise 
if the money market goes against him. Jap- 
anese traders, too, say that they have a hard 
time to get out of traps such as sharp "Wall 
Street" tricks. Americans sometimes criticise 
Japanese as i delators, but Japanese know that 
some Americans worship the golden calf. 
Americans from Japan will talk to you about 
the sexual immorality of the Japanese woman ; 
the Japanese, too, will say to you, not mention- 
ing many large cities, that New York City alone 
has over 60,000 prostitutes, and the City of Chi- 
cago has its revenue of $20,000,000 from the 
traffic of 10,000 prostitutes. 



\.n\ 




^ 



LIFE OF JAPAN 



CHAPTER VI 



"Oh ! sacred mountain of Japan ! 

Should your Yamato spirit 
Strangers seek to scan, 

Say — it's the mountain cherry, 
Scatt'ring fragrance far and near 

To the golden glow of the morning sun!" 

Narcissa Hayes. 



Topography of Japan 

Sec. 24. The Sacred Lake Bizva: Topo- 
graphically speaking, the coast line of Japan 
is much cut into countless bays, inlets, seas, 
straits, capes, peninsulas, and rugged promon- 
tories, and the interior comprises numbers of 
regularly disposed mountain ranges, with in- 
tervening plains or undulating country. 

Vegetation being everywhere luxuriant, the 
mountain, valley and island scenery, among 
these emerald isles of the Orient, is sublime be- 
yond description. 

The principal lake is Biwa, 100 square miles 

[78] 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JAPAN 



in area. It is to us a sacred lake, around which 
nestles many a heart-swelling legend. Fuji- 
No-Yama, a semi-extinct volcanic crater, 13,- 
000 feet high, is our highest and most sacred 

mountain. 

The climate of Japan resembles that of the 
Eastern States, but is more humid in summer 
on account of numerous showers. The sum- 
mer is hot, sometimes sultry, but always whole- 
some; the winters are cool and often piercmg. 
The ocean currents that wash the coast of 
Japan could not be properly described herem. 
We will merely mention that the various arctic 
and equatorial currents that together constitute 
the Japan Stream, not only give to Japan a 
most varied climate, but bring to her shores 
enormous shoals of fish and other sea animals, 
in such quantities and endless varieties as to 
make Japan phenomenal in this respect. More- 
over the Japan Stream crosses the Pacific and 
gives warmth to the coast of California. 

The fauna and flora of Japan somewhat re- 
semble those of America; yet the Japanese 
have a few animals and plants that are more or 
less distinctly peculiar to their country. 



[79] 



^ r> ' 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

The vegetation of Japan is exceedingly luxu- 
riant. Great forests of cedars, lotus, pines, wil- 
lows, juniper, maple, hydrangea, mulberry, 
ilex, giant camellias, the laquer and camphor 
trees, loquats and wistarias, cherries and plums, 
everywhere abound, the great bamboo groves ^, 
exist throughout the islands. The chrysanthe- 1>/ 
mum, our national flower, has its home in Siijj 
Japan. 

Sdc. 25. The Sacred Mountain Fuji: In 
early times Japan was considerably rocked 
by earthquakes, and light shocks are still 
frequent, with an occasional severe one. By 
far the most noted phenomenon of this na- 
ture in our annals occurred in the year 286 
B. C, when the sacred mountain Fuji and Lake 
Biwa (before mentioned), which is 300 miles 
from it, were formed. Mount Fuji suddenly 
rose to its present elevation, of 13,000 feet, and 
at the same time a great chasm opened and 
filled with water. This was Lake Biwa. This 
may appear extraordinary, but it is not compar- 
atively so, if we search the records of such 
events. As late as 1759 A. D., and as near 
here as Mexico, the volcano Jorullo rose sud- 



[80] 



-•♦aLaj^, 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JAPAN 

denly to the height of 1,500 feet in the midst of 
a plain 2,890 feet above the sea level. Mount 
Fuji has been active for more than 1,850 years, 
its last eruption occurring in the year 1707. 

This sacred mountain, as everybody who 
sees it will admit, is a wonder of the world. 
No mountain in any country surpasses Fuji in 
sublimity and grandeur. They who see 
it in the distance, stand in reverence before a 
most beautiful sight, beyond power of descrip- 
tion. Fuji's lofty crown, clad with everlasting 
snow, casts indescribable brilliancies and illu- 
minations on the surrounding peaks and valleys 
far and near, under the glorious rays of the 
rising sun. Its divine and majestic cone is like 
"a huge white fan, invertedly hanging in the 
heaven." Around Fuji nestle many legends 
and traditions. Even at the present day, under 
the light of environment of the twentieth cen- 
tury civilization, tens of thousands of pious 
Japanese worship the gods of the mountain. 
The author would like to state a little personal 
experience. When in August — that is the time 
the temperature on the summit of Fuji can be 
tolerated when it is reached — he succeeded in 



[81] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

climbing to the top. From Gatemba he as- 
cended the gradually undulating path among 
the clumps of trees. There are ten stations 
where one can rest for a little while and write 
a sign of his passage at what is called the 
Eastern Gate, or at some station eat cakes, 
rice soup or plums, and drink tea. Blankets 
and fires are provided to mitigate the piercing 
cold wind up on the summit stations. The author 
had, of course, many fellow-travelers, among 
whom, as usual, were large numbers of Fuji 
worshippers, who climb the mountain once a 
year. He has many a time engaged in interest- 
ing conversation with them. One of them said to 
him : ''I had a hard experience last year, for some 
ungrateful person was with me, whose presence 
offended the mountain, causing a fierce wind 
and storm halfway up. Whenever any impious 
individual is near, or about to climb the holy 
and divine mountain, surely then the guardian 
spirits of the mountain are enraged and warn 
us with the fierce wind and storm." The author 
could not then resist the force of argument of 
his fellow-traveler, the Fuji worshipper, al- 
though it is his habit to reason with any person 

[82] 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JAPAN 

upon matters of superstition, but having in front 
of him the grand sight of this mountam, the 
heart-rending figure which exalts itself to 
command and put down, with a feelmg of 
awe and reverence, he meekly submitted to the 
point of argument of the Fuji worshipper. 

SPRING. 
"Amid the branches of the silv'ry bowers 

The nightingale doth sing : perchance he knows 
That spring hath come, and takes the later snows ^^ 
For the white petals of the plum's sweet flowers. _ 

Sosei. 

SUMMER. 
"In blossoms the wisteria tree to-day 

Breaks forth, that sweep the wavelets of my lake. 
When will the mountain-cuckoo come and make 
The garden vocal with his first sweet lay?" 

Hitomaro. 

AUTUMN. 
"Can I be dreaming? 'Twas but yesterday 

We planted out each tender shoot agam ; 
And now the autumn breeze sighs o'er the plain. 

Where fields of yellow rice confess its sway. 

WINTER. 
"When falls the snow, lo ! ev'ry herb and tree. 

That in seclusion through the wint'ry hours ^ 

Long time had been held fast, breaks forth in flow rs 

That ne'er in Spring were known upon the lea. 

TsurayuHi. 

[83] 











LIFE OF JAPAN 



CHAPTER VII 



"Oh ! that that ancient bridge, 

Hanging 'twixt heaven and earth, were longer still ! 
Oh ! that yon tow'ring mountain-ridge 

So boldly tow'ring, tow'red more boldly still ! 
Then from the moon on high 

I'd fetch some drops of the life-giving stream — 
A gift that might beseem 

Our Lord, the King, to make him live for aye !" 



Feudalism of Japan 

Sec. 26. Japan's First Bmperor: In stating 
to intelligent and educated American people it 
seems fitting for a few moments to dwell on the 
study of history as an important part of a use- 
ful and well-spent life. 

To begin with, history, as you well know, is 
the written record of the past; it is also such 
written study of the present as enables us to 
reveal the unwritten past ; the great pyramid is 
not history, and until Herodotus wrote, and 




/ % 





FEUDALISM OF JAPAN 

Champollion deciphered it, it was but an artifi- 
cial mountain. So were the old relics and re- 
mains until the Japanese ethnologists, anthro- 
pologists, archeologists, and philologists studied 
them giving aid to the historians. Kojiki, or 
"Book of Ancient Tradition," and Nihonki, or 
"Record of Japanese Events," are some of the 
important keys to unlock the secrets of the 
historical events during the ancient and 
medieval ages. 

Japanese history dates from the middle of 
the seventh century, B. C, giving the Japanese 
people now the 2,565th year of the Japanese 
era. About the year 660 B. C, Jimmu con- 
quered all petty chiefs, united the whole coun- 
try under his sway, organized a form of gov- 
ernment and ascended the throne in Yamato, 
as Jap'an's first emperor. During the 2,565 
years of United Japan, therefore, there has 
been but one imperial dynasty, comprising 126 
emperors in all. 

S^c. 2.y. Commencement of Feudalism: 
Prompted by the subjugation of the aborig- 
inal tribes, and the barbarian invasions during 
the early ages of Japanese history, a well-de- 

[85] 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

vised politico-military system was organized, 
and soon developed into a powerful feudalism 
for good and for evil. The country having 
been frequently ravished by barbarians from 
distant lands, the Emperor parted with his mili- 
tary functions and conferred them upon a gen- 
eralissimo, or Shogun. 

The title of Shogun was first conferred by 
the Emperor on a general-in-chief in the sixth 
century, A. D., to whom was entrusted the sub- 
jugation of the aborigines, and defense from 
the barbarian invasions. 

The Shogun was vested in a noble family as a 
heredity, and soon antagonistic families — all 
off-shoots from royalty — were competitors for 
the important office. With the military the 
Emperor virtually divested himself of his polit- 
ical influence as well, from which it may be in- 
ferred that the relation between Emperor and 
Shogun were not always amicably reciprocal. 
Their respective governments were distinct and 
remote from each other in their individualistic 
emulations as well as in their respective capi- 
tals. 

The Emperor's government removed from 

[86] 



FEUDALISM OF JAPAN 

Nara to Kyoto in the eighth century. The 
Shogunate fixed their capital at Kamakura, re- 
sulting in a Western and an Eastern capital, or 
Kyoto and Kamakura. The Shogunate, for the 
nine centuries of its existence, concentrated 
their wealth, power, arts, influence and com- 
merce of the empire within their capital, which 
soon far surpassed in importance the imperial 
or Western capital, Kyoto. For a time during 
the Middle Ages, the rivals Taira and Mina- 
moto or Heike and Genji clans exhausted the 
resources and vitality of the nation in their per- 
sonal conflicts, the Taira dynasty prevailed 
until 1 1 59, when the Minamoto family gained 
the ascendancy and remained in possession of 
the Shogunate until 12 19, when the clan be- 
came extinct and was succeeded by the Ho jo 
dynasty. The Tokugawa was the last of the 
Shogun dynasties, continuing until 1868, when 
the Shogunate was suppressed by the instru- 
mentality of the great national upheaval, which 
was fortuitous to Perry's opportune expedition. 
Sec. 28. The Caste System: It was Yoritomo, 
a Shogun of the Minatomo dynasty, who over- 
threw the Taira clan just mentioned. In Yori- 



[87I 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

tomo civil rule surrendered to military. Thus 
feudalism practically began about the year i i6o 
A. D. 

The Shogun parceled the country into fiefs, 
each under a separate Daimio or feudal baron 
with concomitant clans, castes, vassals, and 
feudal tenure. Feudalism has ever been inci- 
dental to such a military tenure. During the 
Shogunate each Daimio ruled within his fief as 
a sovereign. The territory of each Daimio was 
politically and socially independent from that 
of every other fief, and the laws and customs of 
each such territory was often the very antithesis 
of those adjacent fiefs. The circulating medium, 
which in most cases was paper money, was also 
severally distinct, the money of one fief not be- 
ing current in any other. Various hardships 
thus grew out of this polyarchial system. The 
people in each fief were usually classified in 
five classes or subdivisions — the military or 
Samurai, the agriculturists, the artisans, the 
merchants, and eta or outcaste. 

Sec, 29. The Periclean Age of Medieval 
Japan: Yoritomo had married into the Ho jo 
family and now the Ho jo became the real rulers, 

[88] 



FEUDALISM OF JAPAN 



not, to be sure as Shoguns, but they worked the 
wires both at Kyoto and Kamakura. During 
this Hojo dynasty of double rule, Japan was 
twice invaded by Mongols under Kublai Kahn, 
the grandson of the great Genghis Kahn, who 
swarmed and devastated Europe. These events 
rendered the name of the Hojo clan memorable 
in Japanese history. Arts and literature were 
encouraged during this era, which may safely 
be called the Periclean Age of Medieval Japan. 
The Ashikaga dynasty began during the Ashi- 
kaga rule, and the imperial power was reduced 
to nil; civil wars and earthquakes wrecked the 
empire, and devastation, starvation, and pesti- 
lence cast a gloom over the nation. It was the 
darkest period of Japanese history. The com- 
ing of the Portuguese and Spaniards in the mid- 
dle of the sixteenth century modified this state 
of affairs. It was then that Christianity was 
introduced by some Jesuits and Franciscans, 
among whom was that extraordinary man, 
Francis Xavier. 

This terrible Ashikaga age of civil war was 
remarkable for discovery and invention, and a 
revolution in the arts of peace as well as of 



war. 

[89] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

Sec. 30. Instance of a Beggar Who Became 
Shogun: Toward the close of the Ashikaga 
Shogunate three great men of Japan rose into 
prominence, two of which, Hideyoshi and 
lyeyasn, merited the highest distinction accord- 
ing to Japanese ideals of celebrity. Hideyoshi's 
case shows that in Japanese national economy 
a man of low rank may ascend to the highest au- 
thority in the realm, next to the Emperor. Hide- 
yoshi, when a mere child, deserted the parental 
roof, became an apprentice, next a sexton in a 
Buddhist temple, and then a beggar. He became 
a tramp, living anywhere, and sleeping where 
night overtook him. On one occasion he slept 
on the Takechiyo-Bashi bridge, and before he 
arose in the morning he was roughly picked 
up and ordered out of the way by one of the 
attendants of a retinue that accompanied a 
young nobleman, Tokugawa lyeyasn. Hide- 
yoshi noticed that the young nobleman was a 
mere lad, even younger than himself, and he 
said to himself, "Why should I get out of the 
way. He is rich and I am poor, to be sure, but 
that makes no difference. I have heard of the 
rich becoming poor and the poor becoming 



[90] 




FEUDALISM OF JAPAN 

rich. Some day I will rise to a higher posi- 
tion than he has, and then I will make him tie 
my shoe." Hideyoshi, after some deeds of 
valor, received from the Emperor the title of 
Kwampaku, or premier. Therefore, he was 
general-in-chief of all the armies, and thereby 
had an authority over the princely Daimios, 
some of whom rebelled. He, by great military 
skill, suppressed these rebellions, and then in- 
vaded Korea and China in two decisive cam- 
paigns. The first expedition to Korea, in the 
year 1591, was preliminary to a further enter- 
prise against China. He advanced as far as 
Nagoya. He there sent an army to Fusan, 
which reached that place a few days later. The 
Japanese army was victorious everywhere, and 
soon captured Seoul, the capital of Korea. The 
King of Korea took refuge in China and there 
he asked the Chinese Emperor (Mins dynasty) 
to support him. The Japanese general, Koni- 
shi had pursued the King to Phog-Yang. The 
ambitious Chinese Emperor acceded to the re- 
quest of the fugitive king and sent a vast num- 
ber of soldiers to fight with the Japanese and 
endeavored to restore the king to his rightful 



[91] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

place in Seoul. But the Chinese armies were 
utterly defeated in every campaign before the 
victorious armies of Konishi and Kobayakawa. 
The vanquished sued for peace, which was 
granted. Hideyoshi recalled his armies to 
Japan. However, the conditions offered for 
the peace were not satisfactory to Hideyoshi, 
so he refused the ambassador from China and 
Korea, and renewed the expedition. But this 
time, while the victorious Japanese warriors 
were marching on ever3rwhere in Korea toward 
China, Hideyoshi fell sick. The further ad- 
vance of the Japanese was hindered and the 
sudden recall of the armies was consequently 
inevitable, according to the circumstances of 
the time. 

Sec. 31. The Bloodiest Civil War in the 
Middle Ages: Shogun Nofunaga paved the way 
for his successor, Hideyoshi, and the latter laid 
the foundation for the last and greatest Shogun, 
lyeyasu. His family name was Tokugawa. As 
Hideyoshi saw his end nearing, he called to 
him, lyeyasu, and said, "I foresee great wars 
after my death; I know there is no one but 
you that can keep the country quiet ; I therefore 



[92] 



FEUDALISM OF JAPAN 

bequeath to you the whole country." lyeyasu 
had to fight his way to the Shogunate, because 
many Daimios openly opposed his supremacy, 
especially those of the southwestern provinces. 
They were subdued in the battle of Sekigahara, 
near Lake Biwa, in October, 1600. This was 
the bloodiest and most decisive battle in Jap- 
anese history. 

Skc 32. Working of the Feudal System: 
The seat of the Tokugawa Shogunate was 
at Yedo (now Tokyo), the city which lye- 
yasu had fixed upon as his capital. It will 
perhaps not be unprofitable to inquire into the 
nature and working of the ingenious system 
of lyeyasu, which was imposed on the fifteen 
generations and also served to prolong the 
medieval period of Japan for over two centu- 
ries. 

The Tokugawa family has three branches 
or houses, the heads of which were the wealthy 
princes of Owari, Kii and Mito, respectively; 
the successor to the Shogunate always being 
chosen when the Shogun had no son, from one 
of these three families. This system was 
founded by the three sons of lyeyasu himself. 

[93] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 





Next to them in rank came sixteen territorial 
lords of Koku-Shiu, feudal barons of great 
power. They were allies rather than subjects. 
Next to them in rank came the nobles known by 
the title of Kamon. There were nineteen 
Kamon families, who were descended from 
some of the numerous progeny of lyeyasu him- 
self, therefore, that comprise all subsidiary 
branches of the three families. Next in rank 
and power were the Fudai and the Tozama 
nobles. They were eligible to the government's 
important offices. These privileges were at- 
tached to these ranks for the token of ancestral 
submission at the decisive war, in favor of 
lyeyasu. There were about fifty-six noble fam- 
ilies who carry the name of Matsudaira, that 
being the name of lyeyasu's birthplace. This 
was a reward given to nobles for signal ser- 
vices to the Shogun's house. The Shogunate 
government was carried on for these nobles by 
he vassals who held fiefs of them. These vas- 
sals constituted the Samuri, and the more pow- 
erful members of this class owned larger es- 
ates as well as greater powers than the lesser 
"^nobles.. 



[94] 






FEUDALISM^ 

Sec. 33. The Famous Samurai Caste: There- 
fore, next to the Fudai and Tozama in rank 
comes this Samurai nobiUty, who by virtue of 
their position played such a large and important 
part in the history of Japan. It may be worth-- 
while keeping the name of this class in mind. 
The Samurai, or the middle class, were the bar- 
rier against the despotic ; and virtually acted as 
agents of the government and the governed for 
good and evil. The number of families of this 
class exceed 400,000, comprising over 1,600,000. 
They were from their official position the gentry 
of the country. It was the pride of the Samurai 
to be privileged to carry two swords as a token 
of their military purposes. It is true that, in 
the long peace which the Tokugawa Shogunate 

irought to the country, the Samurai had no 
|eal opportunity of showing their mettle, but 
e spirit of the profession was there. The 
Samurai formed a caste of their own, despising 
commerce or other means of gaining wealth, 
_and proud of an honorable poverty. They 

Jent their time in the service of their lords, 
the profession of fencing, Jiujitsu, arts and 



[95] 







LIFE OF JAPAN 

literature, as well as the intangible contribu- 
tion to the nation's moral code or Bushido. 

One of the essential features of the system of 
lyeyasu was its caste. The different castes were 
the Samurai, farmers, artisans, merchants, and 
eta. There was no intermarraige between mem- 
bers of different castes. Artisans or merchants 
traded in the same way that their fathers had 
done. The Eta, or lowest class, had a commu- 
nity of its own. Life was as fixed and un- 
changeable as human ingenuity could make it. 

Sec. 34. The Emperor's Position: The Em- 
peror or Mikado, of course, still existed during 
the Shogunate as supreme ruler, but his for- 
feiture of the military authority to a Shogunate ; 
the distinct political powers essentially inherent 
in the Daimios in relation to their respective ter- 
ritories, and the frequent usurpation of his very 
prerogative by the Shoguns, left the Emperor a 
mere figurehead in his empire. The subsequent 
lapse of the Shogunate left him absolute mon- 
arch of the realm. 

Before the investment of the first Shogun, 
the country was peaceful and prosperous and 
the people intuitively submitted to authority. 

[06] 



FEUDALISM OF JAPAN 

The respect for royalty was so evident during 
the early centuries of the monarchy, when the 
Mikado exercised full power, that people never 
dreamed of questioning the authority of even 
the minister of the Emperor, The system of 
employing the military as mere tools to satiate 
the personal propensities of a new ambitous 
prince, either as his private bodyguards or to 
further the usurpation of political power and 
suffrage that naturally vests in the people and 
the Emperor, could not in the nature of things 
last forever. Since Yoritomo supplanted the 
civil power and placed the whole country under 
fuedal sway the rulers and the ruled were in- 
termittently changing places, especially during 
the Ho jo, Ashikaga, Ota Nobunaga, and Toy- 
otomi Hideyoshi dynasties. Throughout this 
period the country was a cauldron of inter- 
necine strife. 

War and duelistic combat was the all-ab- 
sorbing occupation of the people, especially of 
the Sumarai. Such was really the internal con- 
dition of the country for the first 682 years of 
the Shogunate and until Takugawa Shogun's 
death in 161 6. After his death his descendants 



[97] 




for fifteen generations bore aloft the escutcheon 
of the Shogunate, until the squadron of the 
United States, under Commodore Perry, 
steamed into the hitherto undisturbed waters 
of Yedo Bay in 1853. 



"I will kill her if the nightingale sings not in time." 

Nobunaga. 



"I will force her to sing for me." 



I will wait till 




L-her lips." 



Hideyoshi. 



lyeyasu. 




CAUSES FOR OVERTHROW OF FEUDALISM 




CHAPTER VIII 



"Who carried foppery to extremes 
Alas ! now wears a paper coat." 




^^ Ml 



Causes for Overthrow^ of 
Feudalism 

Sec. 35. The foreign Influence: On the 

14th of July, 1853, the Shogunate government 

received President Fillmore's letter. It was 

confronted with the necessity of a more or less 

diplomatic interview with the Black Fleet. The 

presents from the American people must be 

examined, the whole matter debated, and the 

reply prepared before the return of the ob- 

-^"iioxious fleet. There were ten months to the 

""'good. Should it be war or should it be peace? 

- Whichever was to occur, the Daimios, under the 

jlt feudal system, would have to be consulted as 

g they, ex officio, would have to shoulder the re^ 

': on 6 qi:: ^ ^ K^ L fc ±^ m?- O ® ^' ^ m 'J 

-t ^ ^ \t. h ^ % a ») j^ #;',vi fi] - o ft m y 



A 



."^ 



'^- (h 



\x ^^ ^< u -^ ^ n A y ^ h ± t ^zm ~ m\r 

^\m m,)^\ m u fr;^ ^ nk n mz ^^# m'-m ->■ 

ii ± a-si^Sro ^ M'ii' -y mt :^ ^ -fi.' ^ Jr. ^ n X 

u «iii& ^ ^ yi ^ m ^ ^."^m t 3- ft t ih # ^ 



± ■ 

i .1 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

sponsibility. A translation of the brief re- 
ceived from Perry was duly made and a copy 
was sent to each of the Daimios requesting their 
unreserved opinions in terms as follows : "The 
document delivered from the American ships, 
of which a translation is hereto attached, is a 
matter of vital importance to the nation. Ask 
not concerning the past nor for a reason why 
we could not refuse to accept the letter from 
the American ambassador, but cast your eyes 
to the immediate future, where omens threaten 
the overwhelming of the country." 

Sec. 36. Japan Was in Favor of War With 
the United States: To this demand replies were 
rapidly composed and sent to the Shogunate. 
The replies were in substance all of the same 
tenor, one of which, from Prince Mito, is as 
follows : 

"There are ten reasons in favor of war. 

"First — The annals of our history are replete with 
the exploits ot the Great who planted our banners on 
alien soil, but never was the clash of foreign arms 
heard within the precincts of holy ground. Let not our 
generation be the first to permit the disgrace of a 
barbarian army treading on the land where our fathers 
rest. 

[100] 



CAUSES FOR OVERTHROW OF FEUDALISM 

"Second — Notwithstanding the strict interdiction of 
Christianity, there are those guilty of the heinous crime 
of professing the doctrines of this evil sect. If now 
America be once admitted into our favor the rise of the 
faith is a matter of certainty. 

"Third — What ! Trade our gold, silver, copper, iron 
and sundry useful materials for wool, glass, and similar 
trashy little articles ! Even the limited barter with the 
Dutch factory ought to have been stopped. 

"Fourth — Many a time recently have Russia and other 
countries solicited trade with us, but they were promptly 
refused. If once America be permitted the same privi- 
lege, what excuse can there be for not extending the 
same to other nations? 

"Fifth — The policy of the barbarians is, first to enter 
a country for trade, then to introduce their religion, 
and afterwards to stir up strife and contention. Let us 
be guided by the experience of our forefathers during 
the past centuries. Despise not the lessons of the 
Chinese opium war. 

"Sixth — The Dutch scholars say that our people 
should cross the ocean, go to the other countries and 
engage in active foreign trade. This is all very desir- 
able, provided our people be as brave and as strong as 
were their ancestors in olden time. But at present the 
long-continued peace has incapacitated them for any 
such activity. 

[lOl] 




EF^ OF. JAPAl 

, 1' ■^^W?^ 4,7®> "^Han .tiizJ I"^" — V t' :-::i:-i.S.i3T'b( 

'Seventh — The necessity of vigilahce agamstthe re-^^^^^=T^ 
turn of the American ships has brought the vigilant 
Samuris to the capitol from distant quarters of the 
realm. Is it wise to disappoint them? si^r^'^ 

"Eighth — Not only the naval defense of Nagasaki,;;^iSk'' 
but all things relating to foreign powers have been ea-i.^r'[°\^ 
trusted to the two clans of Kuroda and Nabeshima. 
To hold any conference with a foreign power outside 
of their port of Nagasaki, as has been done this time at 
Kurihama, is an encroachment upon their rights and 
trust. These powerful families will not thankfully ac- 
cept any intrusion into their vested authority. 

"Ninth — The haughty demeanor of the barbarians of 
the United States, now at anchorage in our sacred har- 
bor, has provoked even the illiterate populace. Should 
nothing be done to show that the Government shares 
the indignation of the people, they will lose all fear or 
respect for or confidence in it. 

"Tenth — Peace and prosperity of long duration have 
enervated the spirit, rusted the armor and blunted the 
swords of our men, and lulled them to ease. When 
shall they be aroused? Is not the present the most 
auspicious moment to quicken their sinews of war?" 

Sec. 37. li Kamon, the Roosevelt of Japan: 
Some forty replies from Daimios, received 
subsequent to that of the Prince Mito, just 



[102] 





CAUSES FOR OVERTHROW OF FEUDALISM 



quoted, unanimously declared against opening 
up the country to foreign trade, whatever 
might be the consequence. There were conflict- 
ing opinions among the counselors of the 
Shogunate, which together with the positive 
martial tone of the epistles from Daimios and 
other princes, coupled with the condition of the 
Samurai or array, presented quite a tangled 
state of affairs to the Shogunate, and left it a 
most intricate problem to solve. To make mat- 
ters worse the Russians with a strong naval and 
land force were skirting other ports of the 
country and a British fleet was in the Sea of 
Japan. In this state of national uproar and 
ominous forebodings did the year 1853 close. 
The common people, permeated with the pecu- 
liar spirit and prejudices of past centuries, and 
now deluged with superstitious fears, began to 
neglect agriculture; internal commerce was at 
a standstill and the artisan lost his ambition. 
Meanwhile, the man who was the Prime Min- 
ister of the Shogunate's Cabinet was Baron li 
Kamon, Lord of Hikone. A man of most con- 
spicuous figure of the progressive parties and 
of great insight and vigor, but, like many far- 



[103] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

seeing men, impatient of delays and swift in 
action. li was not a man so easily deterred as 
to compromise from what he considered to be 
the right course. Surrounded by enemies op- 
posed to his policy, he boldly entered into the 
treaty with the foreign powers. His determined 
and wise attitude saved Japan from the fate of 
other Oriental countries. However, actuated 
by intrigue and prompted by suspicion, li, the 
most progressive man of his time, as a reward 
for his great work contributed to his country, 
was assassinated at the gate of Sakurada. The 
exclusive policy which permeated the Shogun- 
ate party, coupled with the murder of li, 
started civilized strife against the Shogun- 
ate. The first aggressive move against the 
Shogunate power was made in Satuma, but the 
bombardment of Kagoshima by the British 
fleet quelled the excitement. For this affair the 
British demanded an indemnity of $625,000. 
At Shimonoseki some Chosiu Samurai fired 
upon an alleged fleet of nine English, three 
French, four Dutch, and one American men- 
of-war, whereupon this foreign fleet bom- 



[104] 



CAUSES FOR OVERTHROW OF FEUDALISM 

barded the town and the Shogunate govern- 
ment had to foot the bill of $3,000,000. 

Sec 38. Outside Causes for the Pall of the 
Shogimate: Meanwhile, Perry's squadron, con- 
siderably augmented, returned to the Bay of 
Yedo and completed the treaty between Japan 
and the United States. Then followed other na- 
tions demanding equal treaty rights, among 
which were England, Russia, Holland, France, 
Portugal, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, 
Scandinavia, Peru, Hawaii, and Siam. Thus 
besieged from without by numerous fleets, 
and wrecked from within by the insurrec- 
tions and jealousy of irresponsible Daimios 
and Samurais, the Shogunate succumbed after 
an almost uninterrupted reign of 938 years, 
and with it ended feudalism in Japan, and then 
the Emperor again assumed fully military and 
political sway as of old. Thus out of a calam- 
itous condition of internecine chaos and con- 
flict, order and equity were born and the ap- 
parently outraged nation suddenly broke the 
fetters of torpor and despair — the accumulated 
thraldom of centuries — and leaped to the full 
possession of her pristine rights and glory and 

[105] 





joined the family of nations. It is therefore 
manifest that the lapse of the Tycoon or Sho- 
gunate government and the extinction of feud- 
alism in Japan was a sequel adventitious to 
Perry's propitious expedition. 

Sec. 39. The Inside Correlative Causes: 
These, however, were not the incipient ante- 
cedents of the fall of the Shogunate. What- 
ever may be the trend of events, there is no 
effect without a correlative cause. Such a 
convulsive though beneficial cataclasm, as led 
to the extinction of the Shogunate and feudal 
systems of Japan, so as to interrupt and revo- 
lutionize the continuity of a persistent course of 
events, must have a concomitant precedent, and 
result from an accumulated predisposition, just 
or unjust. The Japanese have never evinced a 
revolutionary spirit. Unusually they acquiesce 
in existing conditions. But, by a posthumous 
delving among the archives of the feudal sys- 
tem, every document manifests some insidious 
encroachment upon the natural rights of the 
people and the inherent prerogative of the Em- 
peror. Apart from the sequel to Perry's ef- 



:io6] 





CAUSES FOR OVERTHROW OF FEUDALISJf 

Ifective visit and others, a fev^ causes of thi|^ 
Important revolution are subjoined. '^^^ ^ 

I. When Tokugawa lyeyasu became Sho- 
gun he at once began to oppose the imperial 
power and to make such disposition and distri- 
ibution of his authority and friends as would 
laltimately effect the suppression of the imperial 
ynasty. By the annihilation of his rivals he 
irmly secured the government as an heredity 
in his family. He sent his most potent repre- 
sentative to Kyoto, the imperial capital, pre- 
sumably as a bodyguard to His Majesty, but, 
in reality, to extend his influence at the expense 
of the imperial power, and at the same time 
to watch the inner workings of the royal court. 
He kept one of the royal princes at his capital, 
Yedo, apparently as a mark of homage and re- 
spect to the supreme authority, but, insidiously 
as an hostage and efficient means of intimida- 
tion to any antagonist that might otherwise 
brew at Kyoto. All influence, power, arts and 
internal commerce were accumulated at Yedo, 
and Kyoto was, in effect, but a distant wes|ern 
suburb. '■' /^^g-^ifc- . 

Such wily artifice presaged hostility and prb- 



■0'^'. 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

voked the Imperialists to be vigilant and to 
seize the first opportunity to overthrow the 
powerful Shogun government and re-establish 
the monarch on an insuperable basis. This zest 
for reprisal had been steadily ripening into fer- 
vent zeal for two centuries, and was evidently 
at hand when the ambassador of a powerful 
nation sought an interview with a commis- 
sioner of the Emperor, and not with that of 
Tokugawa. 

2. The administration, which all along ap- 
peared to be the inalienable property of the 
Shogun, gradually became estranged by the in- 
fluences above related, until generation after 
generation his very family ties became severed 
to augment the power of his rivals. 

3. The Shogunate administration enacted 
that the families of all the Daimios, except 
those of the administration, should reside at 
Yedo to facilitate the extinction of all refrac- 
tory Daimios and sway the whole country at 
the back of the Shogun. The descendants of 
those who had suffered extinction were for 
centuries biding their time for an opportunity 
to overturn the Shogun government. 

[108] 





CAUSES FOR OVERTHROW OF FEUDALISM 



4. The administration created the Daimio- 
ship heredity, placing no premium on merit, 
but rather discrediting valor, so that the wise 
could not evince nor exercise their wisdom, and 
the snob and puppet had equal authority and 
was as highly esteemed as the most astute 
philosopher; thus the office of Daimio was de- 
graded and became mere jumping- jacks to ag- 
grandize the influence of the administration. 
The wise and just were likewise biding their 
time for reprisals. 

5. The edict of tlie Shogunate interdicting 
all foreign relations, and inhibting the egress 
of the Japanese, hoodwinked the people to im- 
agine that the strictures were imposed for the 
mutual good and safety of themselves and the 
country. They thus came to dream the dreams 
of false peace and to bask at ease on the very 
crater of a rapidly developing catachysmic 
political volcano, when suddenly they were 
aroused, though stupefied, by the first quake 
and eruption incident to the apparently omin- 
ous visit of the American squadron, casting 
anchor at the eastern capital. 

6. The centralization of the wealth, finances, 




[109] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

national treasures and resources of the coun- 
try in the Shogun capital; the depletion of the 
finances of the Daimios by exorbitant de- 
mands; and the luxury and consequent licen- 
tiousness of the Samurai, together with the 
consequent degradation of their pride, valor 
and patriotism, all tended to inspire universal 
dissatisfaction and contempt and evinced a des- 
perate condition of national dissipation and im- 
potency. 

The fall of the Shogunate, therefore, was a 
case of f elo de se, the inevitable consequence of 
undue power, maladministration, avarice and 
prodigality. 



[no] 



JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE 



CHAPTER IX 



"What then ! What are his milHon bales ? 
Mere dewdrops on the bamboo grass." 

Issa. 



Japanese Medieval Foreign 
Intercourse 

Sec 40. Ancient Foreign Intercourse: Under 
any form of government it is highly improbable 
that a keen, spirited people of mixed race and 
varied foresight and ambitions, inhabiting an 
archipelago embraced by diverse seas and com- 
mercial highways, could remain, like a great 
family of hermit crabs, forever isolated from a 
mutual intercourse with other nations. 

We find that even when the government of 
Japan formed with the first Emperor Jimmu, 
about the year 660 B. C, amiable relations 
were established between the Japanese and the 
rest of the ancient nations. 

[Ill] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

S]ec. 41. S emetic and Hamitic Civilisation 
Transplanted in Japan: Students of history 
know that the people of olden time were char- 
acteristically fearless. They also know that the 
history of ancient civilization was written upon 
the construction and destruction of governments 
from the ashes of the funeral pyre of the nations. 
But they are abruptly cut short from information 
of great facts of human events which transpired 
along the shores of Japan before the Christian 
era — facts which call into play all emotions of 
the soul of man — the assimilation of the two 
races and civilization — the Phenician civiliza- 
tion of the Semetic race by way of India and 
the Indo-Aryan civilization of the Hamitic 
race. 

To the people of the plains of the Nile, of 
the Tigris, Euphrates, and of the Indus, which 
you consider, if not the cradle of the human 
race, at least the cradle of human civilization, 
the Japanese trace their ancient ancestry. They 
believe that the transmigration of these ancient 
civilizations are amply proved by ethnological 
and geological facts. 

The sea is the principal factor in the mythi- 

[112] 





JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE 

cal narratives, the written languages or hiero- 
glyphics of sea fishes, the sacrifice of human 
flesh, the distinctive manners and customs of 
marriage, ideals of maidens, the worship of 
the sun and the moon, all tend to prove the 
assertion as safely as if you set a ship adrift 
on the Southern Current, running one hundred 
miles per hour, it reaches the shores of Kyu- 
shiu, of Osumi, of Bungo, of Sanyodo, and to 
the Sea of Ise — the unmistakable facts that the 
characteristically progressive current of the 
Semetic and the Hamitic civilizations and two 
races brought to the shore of Japan before the 
Christian era, and therein the fittest survived, 
there can be no doubt. 

At present the highest authorities in Ethnol- 
ogy in Europe and America enlist the Japanese 
race as '' Alio phy lie," a branch of the great 
white race which consisted of Allophylic, Fin- 
nic, Semetic and Hamitic. Whatever decision 
the authorities had rendered, and the scientists 
of all the ages all so agree, yet we have pre- 
sented the Japanese view. 

Se^c. 42. The Japanese May Have Discovered 
America: Some of the earliest people appear to 



[113] 







LIFE OF JAPAN 

have been highly imbued with the dominating 
nomadic propensities. In some of the great 
temples, carvings of undisputed Japanese origin 
adorn the walls. Numerous other relics of the 
Japanese have been found from time to time on 
the Columbian continent, between Alaska and 
the Rio de la Plata. All these appear to be 
proof positive that the Japanese people were 
among the earliest discoverers of America, 
perhaps even the ancestors of the aborigines. 

It is possible that the Hawaians are degen- 
erated kinsmen of the Japanese, although they 
are aware of Nanaula's voyage from Tahiti in 
the sixth century. Among the records of Jap- 
anese antiquity, there appears to be a strong 
proof that some of the warriors of the Shogun, 
Taira-Kiyomori, who was vanquished at the 
battle of the Danno Ura, A. D. 1185, had been 
fugitives in the western continent. 

Sec. 43. Barly Japan in the Byes of Euro- 
peans: The great Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, 
during a voyage along Japanese shores in the 
thirteenth century, learned from the Japanese 
people of a great continent that lies still further 
to the east. May not the inspiration of the 



■114] 




JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE 

great Genoese in the fifteenth century, have 
been partly derived from these records of 
Marco Polo, and thus the most memorable of 
all voyages projected? The great Venetian 
after he returned to Europe, describmg Japan, 
said in a somewhat exaggerated way : 

"Chipangn (or Japan) is an island towards the east 
in the high seas, 1,500 miles distant from the contment, 
and a very great island it is. The people are white, 
civilized, and well-favored. They are idolaters, and are 
dependent on nobody. And I can tell you the quantity 
of gold they have is endless, for they find it m their 
own islands; few merchants visit the country because 
it is so far from the main land, and thus it comes to 
pass that their gold is abundant beyond all measure. I 
will tell you a wonderful thing about the palace of the 
lord of that island. You must know that he has a great 
palace which is entirely roofed with fine gold, just as 
our churches are roofed with lead, insomuch that it 
would scarcely be possible to estimate its value. More- 
over all the pavement of the palace and the floors of its 
chambers are entirely of gold, in plates like slabs of 
stone, a good two fingers thick; and the windows are 
of gold, so that altogether the richness of this palace 
is past all bounds and all belief. They have also pearls 
in abundance, which are of a rose color, but fine, big 

[115] 







LIFE OF JAPAN 




and round, and quite as valuable as the white ones. 
When a body is buried they put one of these pearls in 
the mouth, for such is their custom." 

However, Columbus was doubtless influ- 
enced by these accounts of the great Venetian, 
and determined to reach Japan and India by 
a western route, or perhaps explore an interven- 
ing continent. Columbus, however, was denied 
the privilege of visiting Japan. 

SeJC. 44. Coming of Confucianism and Budd- 
hism: Meanwhile, the Japanese Empress Jingo's 
noted expedition to Korea, in the year 200 
A. D,, established Japanese influence in that 
country. Japan then introduced the Korean 
arts and literature into Japan. The relations 
of the two countries became so close as to cause 
each to patronize the other's skilled workmen. 
Trade and commerce expanded between the 
two. 

In the reign of the Emperor Ojin, about 300 
A. D., Chinese learning was introduced into the 
country and adopted by the Japanese. Internal 
commerce flourished, markets and fairs were 
held in many centers. The transportation in 
the interior and coastwise trade were inaugu- 



:ii6] 



JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE 



rated and the ports of the country were con- 
stantly visited by Korean and Chinese ships. 
The Koreans brought with them the magnifi- 
cent styles of architecture, gardening, car- 
riages, music, poetry and important weapons 
of war, while the Chinese introduced into 
Japan the balance, and standards of weights 
and measures. During this period the Teu- 
tonic tribes, still in a state of barbarism, were 
overrunning the Roman empire, while the 
Mohammedan religion was just arising in 
Arabia. Next to the Korean and the Chinese, 
the people of the Philippine Islands and India 
were the first who had intercourse with the 
Japanese. About the year 654 A. D., priests 
from India introduced Buddhism in Japan. 

Sec. 45. Introduction of European Learning 
During the Sixteenth Century: Musketry was 
introduced for the first time in the reign of the 
Emperor Gonara, A. D. 1530, by the Portu- 
guese. Until then Japanese people did not know 
the art of making or using what were then called 
"mysterious" weapons. Half a dozen years 
later, the Japanese were sent to Portugal for the 
purpose of studying the important art of cannon 



[117] 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

founding and upon their return, the manufacture 
of guns and gun-powder as well as their use 
were the dominating interests of the Japanese 
people. Soon after their acquisitions of the man- 
ufacture of musketry and gunnery, a number of 
Japanese leaders contemplated the seizure of the 
Philippine Islands and other Asiatic coast coun- 
tries. Surely then the complaints from Annam, 
Siam, Luzon, Korea, China and other Malay 
countries, requesting the Japanese government 
to restrain its turbulent behavior, were justifi- 
able. The Japanese people at this time had at- 
tained widespread prosperity. Medical science 
was first introduced into Japan by the mission- 
aries of Christianity, to be used as an instrument 
to substantiate the theory of saving the life and 
the soul. Missionaries came in numbers, 
among whom the immortal disciple of Christ, 
the famous Francis Xavier, was chief, in order 
to propagate the religion of the King of Kings. 
Medical schools were established by the Chris- 
tian teachers, which soon took the Japanese by 
a storm of enthusiasm, and this science added 
to its principles of learning the Dutch medical 



[118] 



JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE 

system, from the Dutch who came to Japan on 
the heels of the Portuguese. 

The Shogunate government advocated open- 
door policy and foreign trade and encouraged 
and licensed the merchants. Even the barons 
and warriors joined in the work of shaping up 
the country's commercial condition and sought 
commercial advantages with other countries. 
The government issued an annual license to the 
trading ships to Luzon, Amoy, Macas, An- 
nam, Tanpuin, Cambodia, Siam, Malacca, etc. 
At one time the ocean liners actually numbered 
one hundred and seventy-nine engaged in for- 
eign trade. The Japanese believers in Chris- 
tianity often visited Europe, even their ambas- 
sadors were sent to Rome, and there presented 
one hundred pieces of gold to Pope Gregory 
XIII. In the year 1584, the Japanese ambassa- 
dors were allowed an audience with Phillip II 
of Spain. Many Japanese have studied in 
Europe and brought back with them European 
arts and products, terrestrial and astronomical ,^^^ 

globes, clocks and watches, together with the i^,; ^/ 

desire for European civilization, architecture, 
shipbuilding and customs. In 1600, the arts of 



[119] 



^iV 



LIFE OF JAPAN 



shipbuilding and gunnery were rigorously car- 
ried on, and among the workingmen were 
Spaniards, Dutch, Portuguese and English. 
Some of them married Japanese women. 

Sec. 46. Reciprocal Treaty Between Japan 
and England in the Middle Ages: About this 
time trade between Japan and America was 
seriously contemplated. Acapulco in Mexico, 
and Nagasaki in Japan, were mutually known 
as the centers of Japanese- American commerce. 
As to Japan's open market policy of olden time it 
may be clearly observed that when King James 
I of England sent the agent of the East India 
Company to Japan for commercial extension, 
Japan entered readily into the treaty. By the 
terms of the agreement both the contracting 
parties were permitted to engage in foreign trade 
freely and unrestrainedly. The people of the two 
countries were to have privileges to sail along 
the coast of both empires, and subjects of either 
country could reside and build houses and en- 
joy the privileges of trading in the capitals of 
each country. So Englishmen came to Japan, 
and the Japanese in turn went to England ; and 
the people of all trading countries, in their 

[120] 




JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE 

critical comparisons of various noted cities in 
Europe and America, asserted that Yedo sur- 
passed all the others in point of health, wealth, 
prosperity, and magnificence. In the main, 
Japan was flooded with the midway light of 
civilization and joined England, Holland, 
Spain and others that were most progressive 
in Europe, as harbingers of culture, knowledge 
and civilization. But the manifest destiny took 
other ways in its march to the ultimate comple- 
tion. Political and religious reasons went in 
and shielded the country, the forces of which 
are altogether superhuman. The Japanese peo- 
ple who constitute only a human unit had to 
submit to the hand of Providence in shutting 
the ever-open policy, and shunning traditional 
history like a nightmare. She went into a pro- 
longed slumbering state and enforced a rigid 
policy of excluding foreign intercourse, until 
after about two and one-half centuries of sleep, 
in 1853, she was awakened by the arrival of the 
United States expedition at the forbidden door 
of Japan. 



"Awake! Awake! I'll make of thee 
My comrade, sleeping butterfly." 




[121] 



Bashio. 




PART II 




" He advises you to consult ^our own safety by de- 
parting from our shores and not to again appear on 
our coast. " 



ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 



CHAPTER X 



"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and 
the people whom He hath chosen for His own inherit- 
ance. The Lord looketh from heaven, He beholdeth 
all the sons of men. From the place of His habitation 
He looketh upon all the inliabitants of the earth." 

— Psalm 33- 



Romantic Relation to the 
United States 

Sec. 47. Perry's Historical Bxpedition to 
Japan: We are coming to perhaps the most in- 
teresting part of the discussion on the "Life of 
Japan," and it will reveal how far and how 
much the American people — nationally and in- 
dividually — participated in and are credited 
with the dramatic progress of Japan during 
the last half century. 

The fifteenth President of the United States, 
Millard Fillmore, in his annual message to 
Congress, dated April 6, 1852, says : 

[125] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 





"Our settlements on the shores of the Pacific have 
already given great, extensive, and in some respects a 
new direction to our commerce in that ocean. A direct 
and rapidly increasing intercourse has sprung up with 
Eastern Asia. The waters of the northern Pacific, even 
into the Arctic seas, have of late years been frequented 
by our whalemen. The application of steam to the 
general purposes of navigation is becoming daily more 
common and makes it desirable to obtain fuel and other 
necessary supplies at convenient points on the route 
between Asia and our Pacific shore. Our unfortunate 
countrymen who from time to time suffer from ship- 
wreck along the shores of the Eastern seas are entitled 
to protection. Besides these specific objects, the general 
prosperity of our States on the Pacific require that the 
attempt be made to open the opposite regions of Asia 
to a mutually beneficial intercourse. It is obvious that 
this attempt could be made by no power to so great an 
advantage as by the United States, whose constitutional 
system excludes every idea of distant colonial depen- 
dencies. I have accordingly been led to order an ap- 
l^ropriate naval force to Japan, under the command of 
a discreet and intelligent officer of the highest rank 
down to our service. He is instructed to endeavor to 
obtain from the government of that country some relaxa- 
tion of the inhospitable and anti-social system which it 
has pursued for about two centuries." 



[126] 




^■ 





0* 



ROMANTIC RELATION TO Tfp; .]LrivriT:EI?, ST:AT]g;^ 

Sec. 48. The Pirsi Visit of Commodore 
Perry: In the month of March, 1852, Commo- 
dore M. C. Perry was appointed to command the 
expedition to Japan, and in the following No- 
vember, aboard his flagship, Japan's pohtical 
redeemer signaled "Weigh anchor and proceed" 
on that historical voyage. He was accom- 
panied by as many vessels as the importance 
and safety of the expedition demanded, and in- 
vested with "full power to negotiate and sign 
a treaty of amity and commerce between the 
United States and Japan," and with "a copy of 
the general instructions," which were to be con- 
sidered "in full force and applicable to his com- 
mand." He bore with him from the President 
of the United States to the Emperor of Japan 

sealed letter of great importance, of which 
the immortal Daniel Webster was the com- 
poser, and, Webster dying soon after, it was 
countersigned by his successor, Edward Ever- 
rett, and which is as follows : 

;^g^;;^"Millard Fillmore, President of the United States of 
America, to His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of 
Japan. Great and Good friend : I send you this public 
letter by Commodore Mathew C. Perry, an officer 



[127] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

of the highest rank in the navy of the United States, 
and commander of the squadron now visiting your 
Imperial Majesty's domain. 

"I have directed Commodore Perry to assure your 
Imperial Majesty that I entertain the kindest feelings 
toward your Majesty's person and government, and 
that I have no other object in sending him to Japan 
but to propose to your Imperial Majesty that the United 
States and Japan should live in friendship and have 
commercial intercourse with each other. 

"The constitution and laws of the United States for- 
bid all interference with the religious and political con- 
cerns of other nations. I have particularly charged 
Commodore Perry to abstain from every act which 
could possibly disturb the tranquility of your Imperial 
Majesty's dominions. 

"The United States of America reach from ocean 
to ocean, and our territory of Oregon and State of 
California lie directly opposite to the dominion of your 
Imperial Majesty. Our steamships can go from Cali- 
fornia to Japan in eighteen days. Our great State of 
California produces about sixty million of dollars in 
gold every year, besides silver, quicksilver, precious 
stones, and many other valuable articles. Your Imperial 
Majesty's subjects are skilled in many of the arts. I am 
desirous that our two countries should trade with each 
other for the benefit of both Japan and the United 
States. 

[128] 



ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 

"We know that the ancient laws of your Imperial 
Majesty's government do not allow of foreign trade, 
except with the Chinese and the Dutch; but as the 
state of the world changes and new governments are 
formed, it seems to be wise from time to time to make 
new laws. There was a time when the ancient law of 
your Imperial Majesty's government were first made. 

"About the same time America, which was sometimes 
called the New World, was first discovered and settled 
by Europeans. For a long time there were but few 
people, and they were poor; they have now become 
quite numerous ; their commerce became very extensive ; 
and they think that if your Imperial Majesty were so 
far to change the ancient laws as to allow a free trade 
between the two countries, it would be extremely bene- 
ficial to both. 

"If your Imperial Majesty is not satisfied that it 
would be safe altogether to abrogate the ancient laws 
which forbid foreign trade, they might be suspended 
for five or ten years, so as to try the experiment. If 
it does not prove as beneficial as was hoped, the ancient 
laws can be restored. The United States often Hmit 
then renew or not, as they please. 

"I have directed Commodore Perry to mention an- 
other thing to your Imperial Majesty. Many of our 
ships pass every year from California to China; and 
great numbers of our people pursue the whale fishery 

[129] 






near the shores of Japan. It sometimes happens, in 
stormy weather, that one of our ships is wrecked on 
your Imperial Majesty's shores. In all such cases we 
ask and expect that our unfortunate people be treated 
with kindness and that their property should be pro- 
tected till we can send a vessel and bring them away. 
We are very much in earnest in this. 

"Commodore Perry is also directed by me to repre- 
sent to your Imperial Majesty that we understand there 
is a great abundance of coal and provisions in the Em- 
pire of Japan. Our steamships, in crossing the great 
ocean, burn a great deal of coal, and it is not conven- 
ient to bring it all ilie A^a^ f-rom America. We wish 
that our steamships"%nd''"6ther vessels should be allowed 
to stop in Japan and supply themselves with coal, pro- 
visions and water. They will pay in money or any- 
thing else your Imperial Majesty's subjects may prefer; 
and we request your Imperial Majesty to appoint a 
convenient port in the southern part of the Empire, 
where our vessels may stop for this purpose. We are 
very desirous of this. 

These are the only objects for which I have sent 

ommodore Perry with a powerful squadron to pay a 
visit to your Imperial Majesty's renowned city of Yedo; 
friendship, commerce and supply of coal and provisions 
and protection for our shipwrecked people. 

"We have directed Commodore Perry to beg your 



[130] 



5fl* < 





ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 

Imperial Majesty's acceptance of a few presents. They 

are of no great value in themselves; but some of them 

may serve as specimens of the articles manufactured in ^ ^ 

the United States, and they are intended as to kens of 

our sincere and respectful friendship. 

"May the Almighty have your Imperial 
His great and holy keeping ! 

"In witness whereof, I have caused the great sea 
of the United States to be hereunto affixed, and have 
subscribed the same with my name, at the City of 
Washington, in America, the seat of my government, 
on the thirteenth day of the month of November, in the 
year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. 

"(Seal attached.) Your good friend, 

"Mii,i.ARD Fillmore. 
"By the President, 
Edward EverrEtt, 

"Secretary of State." 

Sec. 49. The Instructions of American Gov- 
ernment to Commodore Perry: The great com- 
modore carried with him useful implements and 
"t t inventions as presents from the United States^a 
to the Emperor of Japan, including a small com-''*' 
plete railway and equipments, a telegraphing 
^;' ^ outfit, etc. Perry was under instructions to ap^ • ^^ 
^<- ^ proach the Emperor in the most friendly man-g ^ ^ 
^0 1 - -- ^-. . .,- , - (i -si 

m V -c H m ^i y^ m Bii^'n^mm -c © :fcv-jii ^?^ ^,m 
i: -c ^ ^ ic 5 t^ SB ^' «. ^ tri- m - CO R. m^ r § Y 

8t*ii -^ ^ g :){t S& ft^ ^ 7- -c t ± t M^l ~ mir f ± 

n. i^im m, )^\ m [^ -^^^ a-^ *i ii^fs ^^^ m'-m -f % t 
% ^ m Hi, o m (> -B^ 7- i < iY> ^B'i t m' o ± ±il^ 

^ ^ ± $!i-mo m M^t ^ mR ^ -^r^ ^ iSL fa i^ ^^ 

ft A o ?ii m\mn t n y ^^lof ^-t^ 5 -^ Wi z ^ B 

k m mm {'^ mffJ 3^ :^ -y m:k^-A. i> ^ ^ u o u 
i^ ^-< m'.Si U h ik % m i^ Ic^'^Vi 5- {t % 0-. ^ -c 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

ner, and to use no violence unless attacked. He 
delivered his letter and credentials to the Sho- 
gun government after about ten days delay, and 
then set sail on a voyage among the East Indies, 
promising to return the following spring, and in 
the meantime he surveyed the Loo Choo is- 
lands. This portentious expedition of M. C. 
Perry was soon destined to make Japan a world- 
power. 

In February, 1854, Perry returned to the 
Bay of Yedo, and the first treaty between the 
United States and Japan was negotiated, which 
secured for the United States limited commer- 
cial privileges — coal supplies and hospitality 
to Americans. But, due to a misunderstanding 
as to residential rights, a readjustment was 
made in i860 under the administration of Pres- 
ident Buchanan. This "wonton" intercourse 
with "barbarians" met with great opposition in 
Japan and civil war ensued. Good even re- 
sulted from this internecine mix-up, for a rapid 
change now marked public opinion in Japan, re- 
sulting ultimately in cordial, social and closer 
commercial relations between the United States 
and Japan, with results wonderfully beneficial 

to both countries. 

[132] 



ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 

Sec. 50. Perry's Biography: Matthew Cal- 
braith Perry, brother of the renowned Commo- 
dore Oliver Hazard Perry and son of Christo- 
pher Raymond Perry, a distinguished naval 
officer, was born at South Kensington, R. 
I., on the loth of April, 1795, and died 
in New York March 4, 1858. In his early 
youth he evinced promising signs of emi- 
nent seamanlike ability that afterward signal- 
ized his great career. At the age of fourteen 
he was a cadet in the United States nav}^, and 
he served under Commodore Rogers and De- 
catur. Early in life he distinguished himself 
by founding a colony in Liberia, as commander 
of the African squadron, and in capturing 
pirates along the west coast of India. Later 
we find him in the president's chair of the 
School of Gun Practice. As commodore of the 
Gulf of Mexico squadron he did telling service 
at the famous battle of Vera Cruz. Pie had 
been entrusted with sundry commands, and 
numerous valuable services are gratefully re- 
corded to his credit in the arnals of his nation. 
And now, to a commander of such ability, was 
naturally entrusted the momentous expedition 

[133] 






LIFE OF JAPAN , - .^-^^..m 

to Japan. A man of sterling character ; power- 
ful, though mild and gentle; great in adminis- 
trative and executive capacity; a heroic war- 
rior, a diplomat and a statesman ; the right man 
in the right place — such was Perry. 

Sec. 5 1 . Perry's Visit and the Confusion and 
Excitement of the Japanese: A special dispatch 
dated July 3, 1853, was sent by the officials of 
Uraga to the Shogunate government, at Yedo, 
informing it that "Black ships of evil sects" ap- 
peared on the horizon. The news spread like 
wildfire through the city and soon everything 
far and near was topsy turvy. Frenzied excite- 
ment swayed the populace, and vehement broth 
belched forth in showering imprecations on the 
heads of the barbarian intruders. Soon mothers 
with their children in their arms and tied to their 
backs were flying aimlessly in every direction. 
Exaggerated reports and fancies swallowed the 
very souls of the horror-stricken people. Soon 
was heard the clipperty-clip of the warhorse, 
and the clatter of armed warriors ; the rattlety- 
bang of carts, artillery and all sorts of rolling 
stock ; the parade of firemen ; the incessant toll- 
ing of bells and thumping of gongs, mingled 





ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 

with the shrieks of women, screaming of child- 
ren, barking of dogs, and the very denizens 
of the wilds re-echoed the howl. 

Si:c. 52. Japan Did Not Want Perry: 
Promptly the Shogun government sent a 
letter in to the Uraga officials with instruc- 
tions to deliver it to the black ships. This 
communication was to the effect that, "the hab- 
its of the Japanese whenever foreigners asked 
to trade with us is to positively refuse. We 
make no distinctions between different foreign 
nations. We treat them all alike. We are 
aware that our customs are different from those 
of other nations, but every nation has a right to 
manage its own affairs in its own way. In con- 
clusion we beg to say that the Emperor posi- 
tively objects to your entering the Holy Bay. 
He advises you to consult your own safety by 
departing from our shores and not to again 
appear on our coast." In the meantime hurried 
dispatches were sent to the various Daimios or 
feudal barons, commanding them to summon 
their warriors to arms, to reinforce the ports, 
"to .provide necessary money and munitions of 
' "vv^ar, and to call on the priests to obtain the 



[135] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

favor of the gods. This for some days was 
the state of affairs at the city of Yedo, the seat 
of the Shogun government. 

Sec. 53. Attitude of Perry Worked Miracles: 
But this tremendous state of confusion soon 
became immensely confounded, for despite all 
remonstrances to the contrary, the far-seeing 
and intrepid Perry coolly entered the sacred 
harbor to the accompaniment of the most soul- 
stirring music from the bands of his fleet and 
the melodious throats of his hardy seamen. On 
the afternoon of the 8th of July, 1853, the 
United States squadron anchored off Uraga, in 
the Bay of Yedo. The signal guns were 
promptly fired, followed by the discharge of 
rockets. These were signals of good will and 
peaceful purport. On shore there was no sign 
of peace nor good will, for the warriors were 
ready to maintain their country free from all 
foreign intrusion until their ears were struck 
by the wonderful music that again broke forth 
from the fleet. This time it was purely vocal, 
unaccompanied by drum or bugle. It was a 
music so sublimely melodious, so heavenly, that 
for a time it dispelled the bloody passions of 

[136] 



ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 

the army and populace on shore, smoothed 
their fiery hearts and assuaged their thirst for 
the blood of the barbarian intruders. Yet the 
majority of the inhabitants on shore had no 
faith in the Christians, and the time seemed yet 
some distance off for the complete fulfillment of 
the fear-dispelling hymn that was then so 
sweetly breathed by the fleet : 

"Before Jehovah's awful throne 
Ye nations bow with sacred joy." 

Yet let it be perpetuated in the memory of 
generations to come and to the credit of the 
Spirit that inspired them, that these words of 
the hymn then sung breathed forth God's 
sacred providence and wrought miracles in the 
history of the two nations. 

Sec. 54. Perry's Preliminary Commission: 
The officials of Uraga delivered to Commo- 
dore Perry a second message from the Shogun- 
ate, this time asking that the squadron leave 
the forbidden bay. This had no immediate ef- 
fect, neither did the demand of the governor of 
Uraga avail, requesting that the squadron 
move to the port of Nagasaki, whereat, if any 
successful conference could be had, it could as 





well be effected there and the continuance of 
the fleet in the sacred harbor was endangering 
mutual safety. The squadron remained se- 
curely anchored to the very foundation of Dai 
Nippon, and the dauntless Perry calmly dis- 
played the plenipotentiary authority vested 
in him as ambassador of the President of the 
United States, and insisted upon handing to 
the Emperor the important brief, for this was 
the specific function of his present commission. 
The Shogunate were now at their wit's end, 
and marshaling all their ingenuity, a conference 
was convoked at Kurihama, and on July 14, 
1853, Perry's preliminary commission was 
transacted, not by the clangor of steel, the roar 
of musketry and the groans of the dying, as 
was expected by the Japanese, but quietly and 
peaceably, amid the sublime music of the 
American bands. Thus the President of the 
United States and the Emperor of Japan be- 
came first introduced and great has been the 
consequences. His mission accomplished, the 
mysterious commander and his obnoxious fleet 
now left the forbidden bay, with the promise that 
he would return the ensuing spring for the an- 



[138] 





ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATE; 




swern^ng behind him a panic-stricken peo- 
ple and a much more confounded government. 
Thus ended the preHminaries of Perry's mem- 
orable expedition. 

Se^c. 55. Perry as the National Redeemer of 
Japan : Right here let us say that all the stupend- 
ous advancement, the intellectual, commercial 
and national progress of Japan is the sequel of 
this memorable expedition. To-day the name of 
' Matthew Calbraith Perry is emblazoned in im- 
perishable marble at Kurihama, where he 
landed, in token of Japan's gratitude. 

The 14th of July, 1901, is noted in the his- 
tory of Japanese-American relations, for on 
that day Perry's monument was unveiled. With 
tears of pride and gratitude, the millions of 
people scattered over the 137,081 square miles 
of the earthquake-rocked Japan celebrated, 
with grateful recollections, the incalculable good 
done Japan by the United States. The Amer- 
ican squadron and American diplomats partici- 
pated in this memorable day at Kurihama, and 
accepted the illustrious Perry as Japan's,; na- 
tional redeemer. On this side of the octean, 
too, your great citizens voiced their sentiment 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

and hailed this glorious day in the spirit with 
which forty-eight million patriotic people, par- 
taking of their morning feast and donning their 
best, did honor to the revered American whose 
propitious visit to Japan's shores was to be per- 
petuated in a fitting statue. Among letters ad- 
dressed to the author at that time by great 
Americans, he has a few here to produce, of 
which the personality and characteristic Amer- 
ican sincerity will suffice for historical pur- 
poses : 

"Masuji Miyakawa, Esq., Dear Sir: I beg to ex- 
press my great gratification at the progress made by 
Japan. The manner in which she has developed since 
the adoption of Western ideas shows the beneficent in- 
fluence of a good example. 

"I trust that the relations now existing between the 
United States and Japan may continue harmonious, and 
that the two nations may vie with each other in friendly 
and honorable rivalry. Very truly yours, 

Wm. J. Bryan." 

"Mr. Masuji Miyakawa, Dear Sir: Permit me to ex- 
press the pleasure I have in hearing of the celebration 
of Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan, which 
opened that interesting country to the influences of 

[140] 





ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 



Western civilization, and which no doubt has resulted 
in the upbulding of the Japanese Empire to-day, mak- 
ing its position honorable and respectable in the eyes of 
the world. Yours respectfully. 

Jambs D. Phelan, 
Mayor of San Francisco." 

Were it possible for this great harbinger of 
countless blessings to Japan to awake and com- 
pare the miserable islands of yore with the 
Japan of to-day and stand where he once stood 
at the foot of this memento and view the prints 
of his diplomacy he would doubtless exclaim, 
"Well ! My earnest, unselfish efforts have pro- 
duced a thousand-fold !" One of the fruits pre- 
saged by Perry's commission to Japan was ^ 
manifested not long ago, when this compara- ^ 
tively small group of isolated islands of forty 
millions of souls humiliated and subdued a 
veritable continent of four hundred millions of 
people, in the short space of ten months, in spite 
of the coUossal genius of the haughtiest and 
most skilled of modern leaders — Li Hung 
Chang. Those Europeans who then prophesied 
Japan's defeat were fully prepared to admire,,^ 
if not even to fear, her prowess during the re 
cent victorious march of the allies to Tiensin 

[141] 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

and then to Pekin, And more recently, in the 
war with Russia she, as the champion of the 
rights of nations, has paralyzed the Russian 
navy and army, and secured the command of 
the Eastern lands and seas. 

Father Perry! The phenomenal, almost in- 
spired course pursued by you in our sacred Bay 
of Yedo, a half century ago, has rendered the 
bay and soil you touched much more sacred by 
your miraculous visit. May your sacred dust 
rest in peace, with that of your fathers, and 
may your soul be with God; but your name 
shall remain emblazoned in imperishable 
marble in Japan. Whatever were the motives 
that prompted your timely voyage to the shores 
of Japan, the Japanese people care not, the 
salutary effect shall live in grateful and loving 
memory while God spares Dai Nippon. 



The desire of the Japanese people to show their ap- 
preciation of Commodore Perry by erecting a monu- 
ment to his memory to commemorate his entrance into 
Japan in the year 1853, was expressed through the 
medium of the Japanese-American-Friend Society; 
therefore success is largely due to President Baron 
Kentaro Kaneko and members of the Society. The 
Japanese characters were inscribed on the monument 
by Marquis Ito, and read as follows : 

"Monument commemorating the landing of Commo- 
dore Perry, of the United States Navy. 

"By Marquis Hakubumi Ito, the Grand Order of 



Merit." 



[142] 



TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 



CHAPTER XI 



"The spiritual light of our essential being is pure, and 
is not affected by the will of man. Spontaneously 
springing up in our mind, it shows what is right and 
wrong; it is then called conscience; it is even the light 
that proceedeth from the God of heaven." — Miwa 
Shissai. 



Triumphs of American 
Diplomacy 

Sec. 56. Tzventy Years Before the Perry Ux- 
pedition: On July 23, 1832, Mr. Edward 
Roberts was commissioned by President An- 
drew Jackson to obtain certain scheduled infor- 
mation concerning Japan — its laws, customs, in- 
ternal revenue, constitution, etc. Again, in 1845, 
Mr, Alexander Everrett was similarly commis- 
sioned by the United States government to as- 
certain by thorough investigation the details 
of the apparently complicated system of gov- 
ernment in vogue in Japan. The sundry re- 

[143] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 




ports thus obtained were compiled among sim- 
ilar records in Washington, as initial steps to- 
wards the ultimate reciprocation between the 
two governments, Japan and the United States. 
From these records President Fillmore was 
able to judge of the various equities, natural or 
acquired, respectively inherent in the Emperor, 
the Shogunate, and in the Japanese people, sev- 
erally and combined, and of the wishes of the 
majority. 

Sec, 57. Most Astute Diplomatic Sagacity: 
Therefore, the important brief committed to 
Commodore M. C. Perry by President Fill- 
more and delivered to the officials at Kurihama 
on the 14th of July, 1853, was the result of 
thorough investigation and mature judgment, 
and President Fillmore's instructions to deliver 
the letter to the Emperor instead of the then 
existing government, manifested most astute 
diplomatic sagacity, and was an effective peb- 
ble to the terrific eruption of a mighty geyser. 
He judiciously insisted that the response should 
be from imperial authority, as being the only 
treaty-making power of the realm, all inter- 
national negotiations with the Shogun govern- 



[144] 





TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 

ment and the governed being shrewdly 
eschewed for the express purpose of avoiding 
future diplomatic complications, inasmuch as 
the Shogun government was virtually inimical 
to the imperial rule. The fact that the Sho- 
gunate exercised absolute authority, and, on 
previous occasions, treaty powers, as in the 
case of the Portuguese and Dutch in the six- 
teenth century, did not influence President Fill- 
more to treat with it and ignore the Emperor. 
On the contrary, he expressly demanded that 
all treaty stipulations should be negotiated with 
the Emperor and his cabinet. It was manifest 
to the United States authorities, from a knowl- 
edge of the past history of Japan, that the Sho- 
gun government was too uncertain in its sta- 
bility and too capricious in its diplomacy with 
which to attempt to ratify any permanent com- 
pact, and therefore negotiations were sought 
with the Emperor and his Ministers. It was 
further evident to the United States authorities 
that an absolute contempt of the Shogun gov- 
ernment would be tantamount to assuming the 
responsibility of a protectorate over the de- 
fenseless imperial authority and would evi- 

[145] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

dently incur the antagonism of the Shogunate. 
Therefore, the first treaty was transacted with 
the commissioners of the Shogun government 
by the sanction of the Emperor. 

Sec. 58. Mr. Harris the First U. S. Minister: 
This first treaty was conckided at Kanagawa 
on March 31, 1854, during Commodore Per- 
ry's second visit. In August, 1856, Mr. Town- 
send Harris was sent as minister to Japan. He 
took up his residence at Shimoda, but later on, 
contrary to the custom of centuries, the United 
States Minister was permitted to reside at 
Yedo. Mr. Harris had spent his whole life in 
intercourse with the Orientals. He was 
familiar with their commerce, their whims, 
their race tendencies, their emulations, their 
pride, and their traditions. He fully antici- 
pated that any moment the slightest hitch 
might result in a tremendous burst of pent-up 
energies, and he shaped his policy to hold back 
as long as possible the ultimate inevitable. His 
administration, therefore, was peacefully politic 
and prudently conservative. Pre-eminently 
was Mr. Townsend Harris the right man in the 
right place. He frequently assuaged the retali- 

[146] 



TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 

atory ire of his great nation, that on several 
occasions would have demanded reprisals if it 
were not for his marvellous conciliatory sagac- 
ity. His precocious adjustment of most intri- 
cate issues during this hazardous period was an 
excellent object lesson in international law, 
and inculcated in the minds of Japan's future 
political leaders the genuine value of prudent 

diplomacy. 

Certain flaws were found in the treaty of 
1854, which Mr. Harris promptly adjusted, re- 
sulting in the revised treaty of July 27, 1858, 
and which was proclaimed at Washington on 

May 22, i860. , 

Sec. 59. Assassination of the American Vtp- 
lomatic Agent: On the 15th of January, i860, 
Mr. Heusken, Secretary of the United States 
Legation, was waylaid and assassinated m the 
streets of Yedo, now Tokyo. Had it not been for 
the greatness and diplomatic sagacity of Min- 
ister Harris, this extraordinary event might 
have been the cause of far greater complications. 
The Minister not only prevented a misunder- 
standing on the part of the American people, but 
also persuaded his superiors in Washington that 

[147] 





RBiB 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

the unpleasant responsibility lay on his shoul- 
ders, and finally shielded Japan from blame. The 
following dispatch which was sent by Secretary 
Seward indicates the character of Mr. Harris 
as well as the outcome of the event: 

"The Japanese government has made no sat- 
isfactory explanation of this great violation of 
the rights of the United States, and on the 
other hand, has virtually confessed its inabil- 
ity to bring the offenders to punishment. 

"It was argued by me in the aforesaid notes 
that the Japanese government would infer that 
we are unwilling or unable to vindicate our 
rights, if, leaving that transaction unpunished 
and unexplained, we should frustrate the effect 
of the treaty stipulation for the opening of the 
' City of Yedo." 

The tone of the government at Washington 
changed, however, by the arguments of Min- 
ister Harris. The following was sent to him 
from Washington : 

"Your dispatch has been received. The 
President has, therefore, concluded to confer 
upon you the discretion solicited by you. * * * 

[148] 



/ \ 




TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 



We leave the form and mode of that satisfac- 
tion to your own discretion." 

Again, a month later : 

"It affords the President sincere pleasure to 
know that the government of the Tycoon has 
exerted so much diligence to bring the assas- 
sins of Mr. Heusken to punishment, and that 
you are satisfied that those exertions have been 
made with good faith. It is expected that the 
government will not abate its efforts until the 
end so important to a good understanding be- 
tween the two countries shall have been at- 
tained. 

"The punishment of the delinquent Yako- 
nines, who were in attendance on the decease 
when the crime was committed, is regarded by 
this government with high approbation." 

Sec 6o. The American Legation Set on Fire: 
Again, on the 24th of May, 1863, the Amer- 
ican Legation at Yedo was set on fire, and at 
the same time, American merchants and min- 
isters were either assaulted or threatened. This 
disturbed condition was maintained until the 
foreign legations were removed to Yokohama. 
Again, Mr. Harris' great pacific conservatism. 



[149] 




,&^i.r-!ilH 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

patient good-heartedness, and statesmanly 
skill, averted a crisis, and manifested to the 
people of Japan the unselfish philanthropy and 
conscientious fidelity of the American people. 
He convinced the Japanese that this govern- 
ment aimed at peace, friendship and commer- 
cial intercourse with Japan, and that it had no 
colonial or dominating motives. Mr. Harris 
explained to his government that the whole 
trouble in Japan was due to the revolutionary 
tendency of an anti-foreign faction of semi- 
barbarians, and that it was the desire of all in- 
telligent, progressive Japanese, from the Em- 
peror down, to break the fetters of fossil con- 
ditions and to rise to the highest plateau of 
civilization possible, and to continue in the very 
van of the nations. Mr. Harris, therefore, 
asked the influence of his government to aid 
the well-disposed in suppressing the turbulent 
element and in sundering the cordon that re- 
sisted the nation's progress. 

Sec. 6i. Japanese Foreign Relations More 
Confounded: Despite Mr. Harris' great diplo- 
matic efforts during his benign administration, 
such was still the condition of the factions in 

[150] 



TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 

Japan at the time of his resignation that in the 
dispatch sent by the Secretary of State, Mr. Sew- 
ard, to Mr. Robert H. Prugn, who succeeded 
Mr. Harris, we read the following rather dis- 
couraging suggestion: "I fear you (Mr. R. H. 
Prugn) will find embarrassment in your mis- 
sion, which will make you regret its honors and 
undervalue its power." The dispatch goes on to 
say that : "Japan is a semi-enlightened and iso- 
lated country, only recently induced into treaty 
relations with the United States. A favorable 
impression towards the United States has been 
evinced by the government of Japan, granting 
special treaty stipulations in favor of our gov- 
ernment, as compared with other nations. The 
sentiments of the Japanese in our favor is 
mainly due to the great patience and political 
sagacity of Commodore Perry and your prede- 
cessor, Mr. Harris. But it is notorious that 
the people of Japan, and especially its existing 
government, have not yet reconciled them- 
selves to a complete commercial revolution and 
to national emancipation from an obsolete tra- 
ditional prestige, as is essentially incidental to 
our treaty stipulations with them. Old customs 



:isi] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

have remained unchanged for many centuries 
and there remains a superstitious sacredness re- 
specting their perpetuity, a mistrust of enhght- 
enment and a suspicion of the motives of for- 
eigners. Hitherto, as we have good reason to 
beHeve, the Japanese people and government 
have been kindher disposed towards us than to- 
wards the European nations with whom they 
have similar commercial intercourse under 
similar conditions." 

Sec. 62. Gift of $750,000 Prom United 
States: By the wishes of the American people, 
the United States remitted its share in the $3,- 
000,000 indemnity for the Shimonoseki affair, 
mentioned elsewhere. This share of $750,000 
was to be devoted to education in Japan. From 
the Act of Congress remitting this share we 
glean this motive : "It is believed that such a 
policy will result in the establishment of more 
intimate relations with the government of 
Japan, will ultimately prove of great import- 
/' ,<'0 ance in furthering the commerce of the two na- 
tions, and will accelerate the progress of civil- 
ization." The government of Japan accepted 



[152] 



TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 

this beneficient donation of $750,000 for the 
purpose specified in the bequest. 

Sec. 63. The United States as Japan's Pos- 
ter-Mother: Judge John A. Bingham, a native 
of the same State that gave to the United States 
the late President McKinley, Ohio, and for 
thirteen years Minister to Japan, did much to 
advance the intellectual and national progress 
of that country. Of him. President Grant justly 
said : "Judge Bingham has taught the people of 
Japan that they are a nation, and has taught 
the nations of the earth to respect them as 
such." Had it not been for Mr. Bingham's 
determined shrewdness, Russia and other na- 
tions of the world would have taken advantage 
of Japan's paralyzing vicissitudes to coerce her 
into damaging relations. As soon as Japan 
issued her custom regulations she at once ex- 
posed herself as a prey to avaricious nations. 
The United States, with Japan's approval, 
morally obliged the other interested countries 
to follow the system of philanthropic civiliza- 
tion pursued by the United States. The Jap- 
anese then began to look upon America as 
Japan's moral ally, regardless of race or color 






[153] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

of the American people, and they appreciated 
deep in their hearts that America and humani- 
tarianism were synonymous terms. 

Before entering into a descriptive narrative 
as to the extent of the triumphs of American 
diplomacy when Japan engaged in a life and 
death struggle with Russia, while in the mean- 
time the interest of the civilized world was per- 
haps unprecedently centered in the international 
drama, it may be not only interesting to give a 
brief account of the causes and effects of the 
wars Japan had with China and Russia, but it 
would also serve the historical purpose of the 
present work. 

Sec. 64. The Causes of Chino- Japanese 
Wars: It goes without saying that the geogra- 
phy of Korea places her strategically in a posi- 
tion where it might be possible to strangle 
Japan at will. If Korea were as stable and pro- 
gressive as Japan, it would be but natural that 
there should be either alliance or annexation of 
the two countries. It is providential. This natu- 
ral and economic reason, as far back as the 3d 
century A. D., necessitated the sending by Japan 
of an expedition under the famous heroine, 



154] 




TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 

Empress Jingo. The same reasons impelled ' 
the sending of the expedition of Hideyoshi 
during the i6th century. A large part of Japan's 
medieval history tells of the continual homage 
that was paid to her by Korea and of Japan's 
suzerainty over Korea. With the isolation 
policy of the Takugawa Shogunate, temporary 
severance of political ties between Japan and 
Korea became the inevitable sequence. But the 
reawakening of Japan once more brought forth 
the consciousness of the predestined political 
common cause with Korea. Therefore, in the 
year of 1876 the Japanese forced open the com- 
mercial door of Korea, which was so closely 
shut against the rest of the world as to cause 
her to be appropriately named by the commer- 
cial nations the "Hermit Kingdom." The 
method Japan employed for opening Korea 
was somewhat analogous to that of Commo- 
dore Perry in dealing with Japan herself. The 
Japanese fleet sailed up within sight of Seoul, 
the capital, afid by a display of men of war 
and guns forced the government to sign a 
treaty opening the country to trade through 



[155] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

the port of Fusan, and four years afterwards 
the port of Chemulpo. 

Unfortunately for Korea and Japan, and no 
less for China, the Korean kingdom was al- 
ways unstable in the organization of her gov- 
ernment, and very unreliable in the observance 
of a treaty compact. Her international agree- 
ment of yesterday has been unconsciously and 
openly disregarded, and is a useless paper of 
to-day. Moreover, Korea lacked in moral 
principle, in that, for instance, while she pro- 
fessed the sincerest friendship for a nation, 
ostensibly, yet she proved a decided enemy to 
that nation, and was industriously intriguing 
against while professing warmest friendship. 
In the meantime, European powers were slowly 
but surely working out the scheme actually 
to be ended in the partition of China. And de- 
fenceless China, conscious or not conscious, 
yet ambitious, was attempting to acquire sov- 
ereignty over defenceless Korea. China, and 
more especially Korea, defenceless and help- 
less to cope with foreign aggression, Japan 
must take measures not only to save herself 
from being weakened by the weakening condi- 

[156] 



TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 

tion of Korea and China, but also must take 
decided means to make an end of the continued 
disorderly condition of her neighbors, and 
if possible to develop the Asiatic countries for 
the world, open the door of commerce for any 
nation — European or American — no less than 
Japan herself, to enter and realize the fruits 
of its own industry, merit and civilization. 

In 1885 the famous treaty of Tentsin was 
entered into between China and Japan, which 
provided that in case insurrection or internal 
disorder arose within Korea and became 
serious to the extent of demanding military 
help from without, in order to restore peace 
and tranquility, China and Japan shall be mu- 
tually consulted beforehand as to the amount of 
such help, and both nations were to take com- 
mon action. If the contract were observed to 
the letter of the law, the history of Asia might 
have been different. But, for reasons known 
to China alone, when the insurrection of the 
Tong Haks reached the stage where it was 
necessary for outside interference in Korea, 
the Chinese government, without warning or 
consultation with Japan, and openly disregard- 

[157] 





LIFE OF JAPAN 




ing the Tentsin treaty, not only equipped her 
military forces, but actually established her 
military supremacy in Seoul. Thus challenged 
by China, what could Japan do but meet the 
situation as it demanded? 

Se)c. 65. The Declaration of Chinese- Japa- 
nese War: On July 25, 1894, the three Japa- 
nese men of war, cruising in the Yellow Sea, 
sighted two ships of the Chinese navy convey- 
ing a transport which had on board about 
twelve hundred troops to reinforce the Chinese 
regiments at Asan. Naniwa, the Japanese 
flagship, now approached the transport, a char- 
tered British vessel named the Kowshing and 
flying the British flag, and made examination 
of her papers. The captain of the Japanese 
warship ordered the Kowshing to follow her. 
The Chinese generals and British officers, not 
accustomed to instantaneously obey the com- 
mands of Japanese, hesitated. The Japanese 
oflicers, seeing the hesitation, gave the second 
command. This time it was "Fire" ! And 
before half an hour elapsed the Kowshing went 
to the bottom, carrying down with her over one 
thousand souls. This was practically the decla- 



[158] 







as 



TRIUMPHS O: 



ration of war. This was followed by the naval 
battles in the Eastern waters, where some of 
the most astounding events in the records of 
the navies of the world took place; for iron- 
clad battleships of the present day for the first 
time in history were put to proof, and the naval 
inventions made in Europe and America had 
their first trial in the conflicts between the Chi- 
nese and the Japanese, which latter proved be- 
fore all maritime nations her ability to handle 
these powerful engines of war — and this, too, 
when only a half-century previous her natives 
were hardly beyond the bow and arrow stage 
of warfare. While naval battles were prac- 
tically brought to an end by the final destruc- 
tion or capture of all the Chinese war vessels 
n the Japanese attacks on the Port of Wei- 
hai-wei; the Japanese land forces commenced 
their operations along Seoul, Asan, Chao- 
Yung, then passing the boundary of Korea 
into China (here the author had the honor and 
pleasure of joining the imperial army in the 
capacity of an official interpreter) on to Chin- 
^.._ Chio, Port Arthur, Tai Ping San, Neu Chang, 
=^ivand, la^ and decisively, to finish at Tenshio- 



[159] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

dai. The warring nations commenced hos- 
tilities on July 25, 1894; they continued until 
the Chinese sued for peace on April 17, 1895. 
This war was as great a war as the late war 
with Russia, if not more disastrous to Japan. 
China, with 400,000,000 population, her land 
forces, with many European volunteers in her 
army, almost every ship manned with Euro- 
pean gunners and officers, with her determina- 
tion to win, and also having at her back the 
sympathy and assistance of Russia, Germany 
and France, together with the world's en- 
couraging prophecy that China's superior war 
materials would bring her victory, vigorously 
prosecuted her war against Japan, who had no 
single European or American soul helping her 
either in the army or in the navy, or in her 
economy. The outcome of the war is well 
known — Japan lost not a single campaign on 
land or on sea. 

Skc 66. The Termination of War: By the 
treaty of peace signed at Shimonoseki, China 
ceded the islands of Formosa, besides giving 
an indemnity of 200,000,000 taels, and agreed 
to the occupation of the Port Arthur and Lio 

[160] 



TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 

Tung Peninsula, and for the independence of 
Korea, which was to be virtually under Japa- 
nese protection. But the signal victory of 
Japan over China gave no less trouble than be- 
fore the war. The cowardice of the world cer- 
tainly causes poor Japan to keep busy for her 
self-defence! The European powers became 
alarmed and fearful that Japan, so powerful 
a nation and neighbor of China and Korea, 
might eventually frustrate the deep-rooted 
scheme so ingeniously devised, namely, the 
partition of China, the oldest and most popu- 
lous nation, but now practically moribund. 
France and Germany, by the request of Russia, 
who was impelled by so-called "labor of love" 
to maintain integrity of the Eastern nations, 
joined her in the united protest against Japan, 
and demanded the evacuation of Port Arthur 
and the Lio Tung Peninsula, which she, by the 
Shimonoseki treaty, was rightly entitled to 
own. But confronted by this overwhelming 
odds of the European powers, Japan was forced 
to forfeit these rights, and was humihated by 
seeing, before the ink was scarcely dry on the 
notice to the Chinese government of the evacu- 

[i6i] 






ation, Russia had secretly taken possession of 
Port Arthur from China, which fact, by treaty 
of March 23, 1898, was made pubHc. Herein 
lie some of the important elements that slowly 
but surely evolved the later war — a war with 
perhaps the greatest bloodshed ever recorded 
in the history of the world. 

Sec. 67. The Causes of the Russia and Jap- 
anese War: To freely open the vast continent 
of Asia to the commerce of the world ; to enter 
into honorable rivalry with all the nations of 
the world, and to vie freely and honorably in 
the development and the exploitation of the 
great territories of China, these are, briefly 
stated, the national policies of Japan before the 
commencement of the war with Russia. 

Russia as a great power perennially sought 
an adequate outlet for her commerce to the 
ocean, in Europe, which has been, however, re- 
peatedly thwarted by her neighbors. Finally 
she directed her energies towards the comple- 
tion of a marvelous five-thousand-mile march 
across northern Asia to the Pacific, or the 
Trans-Siberian Railway from St. Petersburg 
to Vladivostock, However, it must be remem- 



[162] 



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TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN 

bered that the terminar^of^her^'" 'trans- Asian 
march has always been, and must be of neces- 
sity, other than Vladivostock, for the latter was 
known to her as ice-bound before she acquired 
the port. As to Russia's ulterior purposes, the 
strategical geography unreservedly reveals 
that. The cardinal object was to acquire eithe: 
Port Arthur, Dalny, or Korean ports, for with- 
out such ports the Russian-Asian-march and 
her presence in the East is a splendid failure. 
Her "labor of love" in the maintenance of Chi- 
nese territorial integrity, and her drastic meas- 
ure taken against Japan, resulting in the evac- 
uation of Port Arthur and the Lio Tung Pe- 
ninsula, which China by her national right 
transferred to Japan in the Shimonoseki treaty, 
are self-evident. The fixed aim of Russia in 
China and Korea necessarily included the ques- 
tion of how to safeguard them even after she 
was successful. The answer is plain — that she 
-must, first, fortify the ports; second, Rus-_ 
sianify, or, rather, absorb the surrounding;, 
countries into the Russian Empire, and, to mf^ 
sure the permanency of her acquisition, sh!^ 
must necessarily exclude the interest or influ| 



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LIFE OF JAPAN 

ence of all other nations therein ; third, to clear 
the waterways between the acquired ports and 
her land possessions, to bring about free navi- 
gation of her gunboats or merchantmen; 
fourth, and lastly, she had to acquire and for- 
tify the Korean Straits. The well-fixed aim 
and purpose of Russia was proven beyond 
doubt when Russia actually fortified Port Ar- 
thur and Dalny in the best manner of modern 
engineering and military art and science, when 
she had garrisoned the Chinese territories with 
the fearful Cossacks, when she had established 
her ports of duty and custom, and when she 
had excluded other nations from trading in 
northern China, and in the summer of 1903 
invaded northern Korea. 

Sec 68. The Declaration of Russian- Japa- 
nese War: Japan in view of the circumstances 
had only one course to pursue : On August 
20, 1903, a note was sent to St. Petersburg re- 
questing Russia to sign an agreement with 
Japan to respect the integrity of China in Man- 
churia, and also the Korean Empire, and to 
uphold in both the principles of the open door 
to the trade of all nations. However, through- 

[164] 



TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 

out the negotiations which followed, Russia 
refused to discuss her intentions in Manchuria, 
and also declined to agree that she would not 
control Korea. After six months of fruitless 
negotiations the civilized world became con- 
vinced that there would be no agreement. 

Right here let us produce from among the 
American dailies what the author said in dis- 
cussing the situation before the audiences of 
the American-Asiatic Society in this country, 
which may serve to show the spirit with which 
Japan faced the crises. 

Dr. Miyakawa, discussing "Eastern Ques- 
tion," said: 

"Civilization, we have been told, rides on a gun 
carriage. However, in the case of the Anglo-American, 
the gun carriage is followed by the schoolhouse and the 
printing press. The history of the acquisition of 
India by Great Britain is written in pages of blood, but, 
as a consequence, the India of to-day is an India of 
liberty, whose native press may say what it thinks, and 
whose people may worship according to the dictates of 
their hearts. 

"The United States wrote history in Japan and is 
now writing history in the Philippines in the same way. 
Its advent-courier is the gun carriage, but behind the 

[i6s] 





Can the 



guns march the American school teachers, 
same be said of Russia? In what manner can it profit 
Manchuria and Korea to be under the yoke of the Czar? 
Can he be expected to give aliens what he denies to his 
own people ? In what part of Russia can there be found, 
a free press, where civil and religious rights are vouch' 
safed and where the little red school house is in evidence 

speech is guaranteed 



and where freedaa*/Of^t; 
to the public. 

"This is the civilization of the great white Czar which 
was being forced upon the weaker nations — China and 
Korea — owing to the cowardice of the powers of the world. 
Was it in the least to be wondered at, after more than 
a century's experience of Russian perfidy, duplicity and 
malicious designs, not only against her neighbors but 
against hereself, Japan at last resolved to put her own 
quarrel to the arbitrament of heaven and her own 
sharp sword." 

Japan, on February 6, 1904, severed her 
diplomatic relations by recalling Minister Ku- 
rino from St. Petersburg. The Russian army, 
on the following day, that is, February 7, in- 
vaded Korea, which virtually served as the Rus- 
sian declaration of war against Japan. And on 
the 9th, Admiral Togo attacked Stark's squad- 
ron at Port Arthur and gave the quick strokes 



^ 





TRIUMPHS O^^ERICAN^ DI 

which disabled the Russian battleships Lsare- 
vitch and Retisan, and protected cruiser Pal- 
lada; on the following day Admiral Ureu de- 
stroyed the Variag and Koviets at Chemulpo, 
Korea. And on this day, February lo, the 
Russian Emperor formally issued a declaration 
of war, which was followed by Japan on the 
next day, viz., February ii, 1904. Thus the 
greatest of the world's hostilities commenced. 

Sec. 69. Result of the War: The horror of 
war continued until Komura and Takahira, for 
Japan, and Witte and Rosen, for Russia, met 
in the storeroom of the Kittery Navy Yard at 
Portsmouth ; until the Treaty of Peace was en- 
grossed in English and French and signed by 
the respectively Commissioners of Peace at 3 145 
P. M., September 5, 1905, and until they uttered 
the words of courtesy : "We shake the hand of 
an old friend, and now a new friend." Japan, 
in her Peace Treaty with Russia, secured all she 
wanted to and for what she fought. The great 
instrument stipulated that, "His Majesty, the 
Emperor of Russia, recognized the preponder- 
ant interest, from political, military, and eco- 
nomic points of view, of Japan in the Empire 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

of Korea"; Russia will not oppose any meas- 
ures for its government, protection or control 
that Japan will deem necessary, to take in Ko- 
rea ; that "the right possessed by Russia in con- 
formity with the lease of Port Arthur and 
Dalmy, together with the land and waters ad- 
jacent, shall pass over in their entirety to 
Japan," and that, "the government of Russia 
and Japan engage themselves reciprocally not to 
put any obstacles to the government measures 
(which shall be alike for all nations as the se- 
curity for the open door in Asia) that China 
may take for the development of the commerce 
and industry of Manchuria." And on Novem- 
ber 1 8, 1905, Japan assumed the political con- 
trol of and suzerainty over Korea. 

Sec. 70. America's Relations to Japan's 
National Calamities: It is impossible to over- 
look the characteristic attitude of the United 
States towards Japan during this war. 

The attestation of American sympathy to- 
wards Japan in the recent war has been unpre- 
cedented in the international records of any 
two nations, even with Great Britain, Japan's 
ally in law. 

[168] 



TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 

From the beginning to the end of the war, 
one and the same characteristic thought poured 
in upon the hearts of the Japanese soldiers, as 
if to assure the fighters : "If the Russians ever 
conquer the Japanese, we are the next ones they 
will have to dispose of." And in the foremost 
of this attitude, rich and poor, young and old, 
men and women — all stood ready in line. 

S:^c. 71. American Women at the Begin- 
ning of Russia- Japanese War: Shortly after 
the declaration of war, on February 11, 1904, 
American ladies volunteered their self-denying 
services to nurse the wounded soldiers : Miss 
Minnie Cooke, Miss Ella King, Miss Eliza- 
beth Kratz, Miss Alelaide Mackereth, Miss 
Adele Neeb, of Pennsylvania; Miss Mary 
Baldwin, of Massachusetts ; Miss Sophia 
Newell, of New York ; Miss Genevieve Russell, 
of Minnesota ; Miss Alice Kemmer, of Indiana ; 
with Mrs. Anita Newcomb McGee, M. D., as 
their leader, a most intelligent, accomplished 
and benevolent lady. Meantime, the war went 
on, on, and on. 

Sec. y2. American Sympathy with Progress 
of War: As the war progressed there was in- 

[169] 





creased American encouragement and favorit- 
ism for the Japanese soldiers, which in a most 
cordial manner was attested to by the Taft 
party. Irrespective of the official protest of 
Russia, that great lawyer, statesman, and Sec- 
retary of War, William H. Taft, and Miss 
Mabel T. Boardman, a representative of the 
National Red Cross, highly cultured, amiable 
and sympathetic, a woman of great executive 
ability, and at the same time characteristically 
kind and gentle in manner, together with hosts 
of other great Americans, in company with a 
daughter of the President of the United States, 
Miss Alice Roosevelt, now Mrs. Nicholas 
lyongworth, of Ohio, paid a visit to Japan. 

In this connection we should not overlook an 
official act done for Japan as a neutral nation to 
a belligerent nation, which we now reproduce in 
the language of the official records. The Jap- 
anese government made the following request 

4j of the American government, through its min- 

:,Lister at Washington : 

>ee the Secretary of State as soon as possible and 
ask him whether the United States Government, if 
Russia consents, will permit its embassy in St. Peters- 

[170] 





urg and its consulates in various places m 
assume charge and protection of the Japanese subjects 
and interests in Russia. 

"You will add that the Imperial government retain 
lively appreciation of the friendly offices extended to 
sthem by the United States during the China-Japan war, 
,nd they venture to hope that nothing will prevent the 
nited States from acting for them in a similar ca- 
pacity in the present instance." — Koniura. 

And from this governmental request the offi- 
cial reply came only two days later : 

"Mr. Japanese Minister : I learn from our ambas- 
sador at St. Petersburg that the Minister of Foreign 
Affairs has informed him that the Emperor of Russia 
sees no objection in the way of our representatives 
looking after interests upon the withdrawal from Rus- 
sia of all diplomatic and consular representatives of 
Japan. The necessary instructions will be issued at 
once. Very sincerely yours, John Hay." 

Se;c. 73. The American Square Deal Diplo- 
matic Policy: We must not lose sight of the fact 
that the United States has achieved one of the 
signal victories of modern diplomacy. It was 
the limitation of the sphere of hostilities, in the 
beginning of the gigantic war. Those European 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

powers who were not in the habit of acknowl- 
edging the American "square deal" diplomatic 
policy had but to applaud this bold, wise, and 
astute diplomacy. Having tested by results, the 
United States stands abreast in the esteem of 
all nations, as she by that move has not only 
lessened the hardships which must of necessity 
jeopardize China, but also prevented China 
from having been drawn into the war, and com- 
mercial interests of all nations to having been 
worse confounded than that already well nigh 
complicated. 

Skc. 74. The Greatest Battles on Land and 
Sea: Meantime, Kuroki's army safely passed 
Yalu, and the famous Port Arthur fell in 
the hands of Nogi's army. A force of Jap- 
anese troops landed on the Island of Sakalin, 
and practically all the Russians were either 
killed or captured. Lio Tung peninsula and 
Korea were declared to be Japanese territory 
by right of conquest; then came the greatest 
battles on land and sea — the bloodiest ever 
fought in history — the battles of Mukden and 
the Sea of Japan. 

The battle of Mukden was the battle in 



t 



[172] 




:(<[ 



TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 



which, in the language of General Chaffee, 
"over one million men on the Russian side" and 
three-quarters of a million men on the Japanese 
side in a battlefield extending over eighty miles 
of frontier, through trackless mountains, 
across snow-covered plains, engaged in mortal 
combat for eighteen days and nights — corpses, 
corpses, and corpses ! — only to be ended by the 
Russian losses of over 200,000 prisoners, 
wounded and killed. And when on March 
1 6th, the Japanese relentlessly pursuing the 
Russians, surrounded and captured them at 
Tiding, as a finishing stroke to a victory of the 
battle of Mukden, and when the news of the 
disastrous defeat at Mukden reached St. Pe- 
tersburg, the temper of the Russian people rose 
to a fever heat, slaughtered, discouraged, dis 
heartened, disappointed, and humiliated. 

The battle of the Sea of Japan was the battle 
when, on the 27th of May, the great Czar's 
armada, the most formidable fleet ever gath- 
ered together in the history of naval battles, 
steamed into the Straits of Tsushima with 
fixed aim, and a determination to annihilate the 
navy of Japan, but contrary to the expectations 

[173] 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

of the Czar and the rest of the world, it was 
completely wiped out, while the startled world 
stood aghast at the immensity of the disaster 
to the Russian empire, with the loss of all their 
warships, valued at over $100,000,000, which 
were either sunk or captured; 15,000 Russian 
seamen, ofhcers, and admirals killed or taken 
prisoners; while the Japanese fleet came out 
practically with no damage. 

Sec. 75. The World Sees Bnd of the War: 
Meantime, the newly raised foreign loan, 
and the passing of the War Fund appropriation 
bill by the Japanese House of Representatives 
— the war to be fought upon the systematic 
trade expansion policy — assured the immensity 
of the national resources. International sta- 
tisticians already had before them the cold facts 
that the expenditure of war and the indebted- 
ness resulting from the war amounted to very 
little to Japan in the world's credit, and in an 
industrial sense with the Japanese people. The 
bill which Japan had to foot after victory upon 
victory was approximately $900,000,000 
which apportioned among 48,000,000, inhabit- 
ants, amounts to about $19.00 per capita. After 

[174] 



TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 

all, Japan's debt was then little more than that 
of the United States, less than Cuba, less than 
Australia, less than Belgium, less than Hol- 
land, less than Germany, less than Spain, less 
than Portugal, less than the United Kingdom, 
less than France. 

Sec. 76. President Roosevelt's Relation to 
the Peace Conference: Japan was then, with 
ever-increasing international credit, and with 
careful preparation and redoubled courage, 
ready to push the campaign to the end; 
marching on, they would push the Russians 
to the deserts of Asia, there to finish the last 
stroke; Generals Kuroki, Oku, Noju, Nogi, and 
Oyama, watching the land, and Togo, Urieu, 
and Kamimura, the sea. The world recognized 
that the end had come, but it needed some one 
to say so. Then came Theodore Roosevelt, 
"the Rough Rider," and President of the 
United States, to say so — the right man, in the 
right place, at the right time. To this inter- 
mediation Japan, the American's foster-child, 
meekly submitted, which resulted in the conclu- 
sion of the Treaty of Portsmouth. And the 
author believes he is justified in asserting the 

[175] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 



sentiment of the whole civihzed universe when 
he says that in ages to come, humanity, philan- 
thropy, and civilization owe eternal debts to the 
American President. 



"It is a pleasure to be able to say that never for a 
moment was there, as between the Government of the 
United States and the Government of Japan, the slight- 
est departure from perfect good temper, mutual confi- 
dence, and kindly consideration." — EHhu Root. 




[176] 



\i^M-'- 



3SC3S. 




.,„„..,, PRESENT EMPEROR TO THE THRONE 



CHAPTER XII 



"When Jimmu fixed the Imperial throne. 

Justice and Mercy to stone, 
He laid its bases broad and deep, 
A throne that should forever keep: 
Oh, happy day for me and mine 
That gave us our Imperial line." 



Takasaki. 



Present Emperor to the Throne 

Si;c. yy. The Historical Bvent: Rich indeed 
has been the harvest of the American people in 
achievement, as reaped by them, in Japan's na- 
tional life. The spirit of right thought and edu- 
cation once having entered the head of Japan, 
through the patient, generous and humanita- 
rian efforts of the revered republic, the whole of 
Japan has been changed and blessed. 

On October 9, 1868, the Shogunate glided 
into history by the resignation of the last Sho- 
gun of the then reigning Tokugawa dynasty. 

[177] 



■W r^^^^.^:^Bki^%fM 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

This, then, is rightly celebrated as the most 
peculiar national event in all the history of 
Japan. Throughout twenty-five centuries of 
unbroken lineage the Mikado has been looked 
upon by his people as holy, imperial and divine. 
For seven centuries previous to the above date, 
1868, through the power of the Shogunate, 
partly vested and partly usurped, the Emperor 
was in effect but a monarch of a very limited 
authority, if not even a mere figurehead. But 
on the above date cited, the Shogunate became 
obsolete, the Daimios lost their fiefs, the feudal 
system was at an end, and the Emperor once 
more reigned supreme over a contented and 
happy people. 

In the year of 1868, or the first year of 
Meiji, the present Emperor ascended to the 
throne. His Majesty is the one hundred and 
twenty-sixth emperor, being the direct de- 
scendant of the first Emperor Jimmu. 

Sec. 78. Declaration of National Principles: 
Soon after the Emperor ascended to the 
throne, the famous Decree of Five Articles, or 
"Gojo-no-Gosei-in," was issued by His 
Majesty, viz. : 

[178] 




PRESENT EMPEROR TO THE THRONE 

"ist — Deliberation assemblies shall be established on 
a broad basis in order that governmental measures may 
be adopted in accordance with public opinion. 

"2d — The concord of all classes of society shall in all 
emergencies of the State be the first aim of the Gov- 
ernment. 

"3d — Means shall be found for the furtherance of the 
lawful desire of all individuals without discrimination 
as to persons. 

"4th — All purposeless and useless customs being dis- 
carded, justice and righteousness shall be the guide of 
all actions. 

"5th — Knowledge and learning shall be sought after 
throughout the whole world, in order that the status 
of the Empire of Japan may be raised ever higher and 
higher." 

From these national principles the Japanese 
as a nation or as individuals have not for a 
moment swerved. 



"Fair are thy blossoms, O lily of hope, 
Bringing to mortal their message of joy. 
That worldly strivings for greed or for gain. 
Never can quite blot from the heart or destroy.' 



[179] 







□Q§n 



LIFE OF JAPAN 



CHAPTER XIII 




Reform of the Financial System 



Sec. 79. The Financial Systems in Pre-Re- 
st oration Time: When the Imperial Govern- 
ment was restored to its proper place in the 
economy of Japan it was at once confronted with 
the financial difficulty. In the transfer of the 
government from the Feudal to the Imperial 
systems, there was no revenue attached to it. 
Worst of all was the public sentiment which had 
been so bitterly against the Imperial regime. 
It was, indeed, an indescribably hard task for the 
new and unwelcomed government to straighten 
out the many intricate problems of finance. 

Under the feudal system, the feudal central 
government was in no better condition in the 
matter of revenue than that of the feudal lord, 
for the feudal central government had the right 
of levying taxes only in its own dominion, and 
the people of those fiefs had no obligation to 






REFORM OF THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM 



support the Shogunate government. And on 
the other hand, the feudal local government 
often was better off in the financial situation, 
than the Shogunate. The revenue of the local 
government was for the purpose of maintain- 
ing military administration and supporting the 
Samurais or retainers, which was its only obli- 
gation in their relation to the Shogunate gov- 
ernment. 

Under such a financial system, the farmers 
and merchants were always obliged to work 
hard and to support often very extensive and 
luxurious unproductive classes, or feudal 
barons and retainers. When the author writes 
this he is indicting his own ancestors, but such 
is the fact of the case. 

Sec. 8o. How Taxes Were Paid in the Feudal 
Ages: In the pre-restoration periods, rice was 
the principal medium of exchange. Taxes were 
paid by the farmers to the feudal government 
with rice — the system of levying being based 
on the harvest of the crop. As we have stated 
the feudal barons were the owners of lands 
within their respective dominions, and they did 
not allow the people to purchase or sell the 

[i8i] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

land. Since rice was the medium of exchange 
and the principal medium for the payment of 
taxes, and collection of taxes for revenue, the 
feudal government interfered and issued 
orders to the farmers as to what land should 
be and what land should not be cultivated ; the 
result of such interference and orders often 
seriously embarrassing the farmers, as the soil 
was not adapted as suitable for cultivation, 
great mistakes and miseries were created 
among the merchants as well as the farmers. 
Even to-day we speak and read of the miseries 
and agonies in songs and stories. Sakura 
Sogoro was a chief of the farmer's council. He 
was honest, truthful, and most beloved by the 
villagers. He took steps to appeal from the un- 
bearable hardships of the farmers, not to the 
feudal government but to the Shogunate, or 
central government directly. Hidden under 
Uyeno Bridge, in wait for the Shogun to pass 
over it, as he could not approach the military 
dignitary in any other manner, owing to the 
numerous guards around the Sedan carriage of 
the Shogun. The time came when the Shogun 
was just passing over the bridge. Out he 



[182] 



REFORM OF THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM 

jumped and succeeded in placing the complaint 
of his followers' grievances in the Sedan car- 
riage in which the Shogun rode. However, 
under the system of the central and feudal gov- 
ernments, he could get no result. His courage 
and effort was rewarded by crucifixion on the 
cross. According to the popular novel, the only 
way poor Sogoro could then see to convince 
the baron of the injustice was for him to appear 
night after night in the presence of the feudal 
baron and his family after he had been cruci- 
fied. This method he finally resorted to after 
his death and secured the remedy for his fellow 
farmers at last. 

Sec 8i . Hozv Reforms Were Brought About: 
In the countries of Europe, as you know, 
when they got the transfers of the governments 
from their feudal barons, they paid the fiefs 
with money. But the almost bankrupted packet 
of the Japanese newly restored government 
could only pay it by means of bonds. Three 
years after the restoration, for the first time it 
was decided that all financial matters should 
be controlled by the treasury, and this was 
succeeded in 1873 by the new order that the 

[183] 








LIFE OF JAPAN 

receipts and payments must be regulated. In 
the year 1880, the Board of Audit was created 
and 1882 was a memorable period in the re- 
form of the financial history, for in that year 
the Treasury was empowered to control the re- 
ceipts and the payments of government money, 
and in the same year, the Bank of Japan was 
established, to act as the government cashier. 
A new epoch was introduced in the history of 
finance when the constitution took full charge 
of the present Imperial regime, in 1889. Since 
then, as at present, the government alone could 
not and can not make its own compilation of 
budgets, and the reporting of settled accounts. 
All must wait until the representatives of the 
people in the Diet sanction them. 

Se;c. 82. Local Revenue: Local finances, too, 
owing to the development of self-government 
conditions and to the progress of the times, are 
exercising the most modern principles of 
finance ; and the nation and central government 
are strictly preventing any undue expansion 
of the local expenses. On the other hand, the 
local finance, in the same way as the national 
system, must be sanctioned by the respective 

[184] 



rfi 



REFORM OF THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM 



local legislatures. This departure for the better 
may be traced to the enactment of the Law of 
Districts and Prefectures in 1889, and the Law 
for Cities, Tawns, and Villages, in 1888. 

It may be encouraging to observe the in- 
crease made in the national and local revenues, 
according to the official reports. For example : 
Annual local revenue in 1890, nearly $36,000,- 
000, but in 1900, nearly $70,000,000. The Im- 
perial National Government had, when it as- 
sumed the responsibility from the Feudal Cen- 
tral Government, an annual revenue of $16,- 
000,000, and in 1903, it reached the huge 
amount of about $126,000,000. 



f 




[1851 



LIFE OF JAPAN 



CHAPTER XIV 



Japanese Industrial 
Development 

Sec. 83. Communication and Transportation: 
In this connection, we should not lose sight 
of the fact that the Japanese Government and 
public are pushing on with great strides the 
shipping trade and shipbuilding in Japan. It 
goes without saying that the coming trade be- 
ing inseparably connected with shipbuilding 
work, the expansion of the one depends upon 
the activity of the other. With these objects 
in view, the Japanese Government is contin- 
ually extending its protection policy in the 
shape of subsidies to steamers, insular or for- 
eign, according to the Law of Encouraging 
Navigation. 

The postoffices numbered 5,485 by the last 
census, which with the postal money order, 
postal savings, telegraph and telephone offices, 

[186] 




JAPANESE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 

are controlled by the Bureau of Communica 
tion. Every year, about 600,000 foreign tele- 
grams are carried in Japan; the w^orld's trade 
will have nothing further to desire while Japan, 
as at present, occupies a central position linking 
together the two hemispheres, and furnishing 
a well-equipped medium of communication. 
According to the last census, not counting the 
insular possessions, but only Japan proper, we 
have 10,000 miles of railroad lines. 

Sec. 84. Silver and Gold Standards: A few 
words about Japan's monetary reform. In the 
coinage history of modern Japan, you will notice 
four periods. The first period extends from 
1868 to 1 87 1, in which the beginning was made 
of the establishment of the new currency sys- 
tem by the promulgation of the new coinage 
regulations of 1871. The main effect of the 
finance ministers of these days was directed to 
the adjustment of the disordered condition of 
finance and coinage, created by the complicated 
and confounded state of affairs during the Sho- 
gunate regime. 

The second period extends from 1872 to 
1879. This period is marked by the founding 



[187] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

of the government mint and the issue of new 
coinage, but more marked for the enormous 
issues of inconvertible paper money, which 
brought about all the evils of inflation. 

The third period extends from i860 to 1885, 
in which the efforts of the government were 
directed toward replacing the inconvertible 
paper money with the convertible notes, which 
prepared the way for the final inauguration of 
the gold standard system, though for a time it 
resulted in the establishment of a de facto silver 
standard. 

The fourth period extends from 1886 to 
1898, in which the silver standard was changed 
into a gold monometallic system. 

Sec. 85. Growth of Japan's Foreign Trade: 
Prior to the abolition of the Shogunate re- 
gime, owing to the autonomical local govern- 
ments, and defectiveness of communication and 
transportation facilities, freign trade — even 
home trade — was in an insignificant state, only 
being carried on with China, Korea, Nether- 
lands, and Portugal, and was limited between 
them and local cities, under a strict exclusion 
policy. It was only after the Imperial restora- 

[188] 





_2l:iorL in 1868, a new era began in the matter of 
foreign trade. To begin with, in 1868, Japan 
had only about $10,000,000 of foreign trade, 
but it has already developed to the enormous 
amount of $500,000,000 in 1902. The United 
States has a large share of this, as a natural re- 
sult of their relations with Japan. 

Secretary Straus, of the Department of 
Commerce and Labor, when interviewed by the 
author, gave him the following statement in re- 
gard to the American- Japanese trade: "Our 
trade with Japan has shown a remarkable 
growth in recent years, during which time a 
feeling of deep friendship has developed be- 
tween that wonderful race and our own. Her 
people have been welcomed to all the privileges 
and immunities enjoyed by the most favored na- 
tion. The privileges of Americans residing i 
Japan, the number of whom has been nearly 
doubled in the past decade, have correspondingly 
increased," 

The Secretary went on to quote the items o' 
the trade of the respective countries, and said ; 
"Our great silk manufacturers, which employ 
thousands of workmen and disburse over thirty 



cc 





X'^r 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

millions a year in wages, have drawn largely 
for their raw material upon Japan, sending her 
nearly forty million dollars for raw silk in the 
year just ended. In turn, Japan has purchased 
freely of the products of our farms and facto- 
ries, so that our exports to that country have 
grown over thirty-eight millions in 1906." 

Sec. 86. The Future of Japanese- American 
Foreign Trade: It is said that Japan, if she 
marches on her commercial expansion as she 
has marched, will, like John Bull did with the 
American merchantmen of the Atlantic, drive 
out the American oceanic carriages from the 
Pacific. It is also said that Japan, with her ad- 
vantageous cheap labor and untiring industry, 
within the near future will not only control the 
traffics of the countries and islands washed by 
the Pacific, but also supplant American people 
in their occupations, placing them in the mean- 
time at the mercy of the Japanese commercial 
flag. All this scare is based upon an entirely 
erroneous theory. Well studied and true eco- 
nomic principles are known to take a different 
course. 

We admit that 50 per cent of the population 

[190] 



JAPANESE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 

of Japan belong to the farming class. It is a 
national policy to encourage agriculture. If 
the rice crop be all sent out for commercial arti- 
cles to a foreign market, she may realize an 
annual income of over $150,000,000. But we 
must admit at the same time in Japan the con- 
sumption of all the rice crop does not supply 
even half of the demand within her own terri- 
torial boundary. The remaining demand must 
be imported from the country that can supply 
the foodstuff. 

We admit that Japan has large deposits 
of coal and iron within her borders. She 
has discovered coal and iron in Manchuria, 
Korea and Sakaline Island, and is getting from 
such discovery large quantities of coal and iron. 
On the other hand, the empire has over 1,700 
shipyards, where all warships or merchantmen, 
as far as she needs, can be built. Recently, the 
battleships, Satsuma and Aki, which were con- 
structed by native labor alone, were launched. 
The Satsuma, their largest battleship, is as large 
as the Dreadnaught of the British navy, and ac- 
cording to American expert opinion, is superior 
in her fighting strength to the British Dread- 

[191] 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

naught. We admit that Japan buiL 
steamers which are now being used as interr , 
national carriers between Japan and Euroj)!,'^ 
Australia, Bombay, Eastern Siberia, China, 
Korea, Sagaline, the Philippines, Formosa, and 
the inland seas, while at the same time, her , 
steamers are lining up between herself and 
San Francisco, Puget Sound ports, Canada, 
and South America. And the steamship com- 
panies are preparing for her extension of 
oceanic lines to Panama, hoping for a speedy 
completion of the construction of the Panama 
Canal. 

Sec. 87. Future Development of Japan's 
Foreign Trade: But we must also admit that 
the mineral materials, such as coal and iron, etc., 
which are needed by Japan are short, approxi- 
mately 60 per cent. The more Japan struggles 
in her commercial expansion, the more she feels 
the need that Japan in herself cannot provide all 
the essentials. The more her people extend 
their traffic to other countries under the ad- 
vantage of cheap labor and industry, the more 
she demands the supply of the vitally import- 
ant materials, foodstuffs, minerals, machinery. 



[192] 



«sag:pegfi' irrJ'"rir Trw 




^::c:-^ \ 



mm^ 




tools, etc., all the essentials to the life of the 
people. Suppose the Japanese do drive out 
American merchantmen from the Pacific as 
John Bull did in the Atlantic; yet Americans 
will still have an exclusive and continuous op- 
portunity to supply the necessary demands, if 
they wish ; the United States extends from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Lakes to 
the Gulf, within which abound all necessary 
foodstuffs and minerals ; its people are not only 
able to supply the demands of their own coun- 
try's internal industry, but also to supply more 
than enough of all the materials that are 
wanted every day by industrial Japan. Their 
national resources are practically inexhaust- 
ible; it makes even a scientist superstitious 
about America as a country in manifest des- 
tiny. Does every American realize these facts 
and carry out such realization ? The future of 
the prosperity of the Japanese-American trade 
is self-evident. 




"Japan entertains nothing but good will toward our 
nation. Steam has narrowed the Pacific and made us 
neighbors; let Justice keep us friends." — Wm. J. Bryan. 



k93] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 



CHAPTER XV 



''Does my way lead me over the sea, 
Let the waves entomb my corpse ; 
Does my destiny lead me over the mountains, 
Let the grass cover my remains ; 
Where'er I go, I shall by my Lord's side expire ; 
'Tis not in peace and ease that I shall die." 

Otomo, A. D. 724. 



The Army and the Navy 
of Japan 

Sec. 88. The Attraction of the World's Pow- 
ers: When the Japanese soldiers safely passed 
Yalu River, which the Russian army named as 
"an impregnable fortification" and to pass it 
"a human impossibility;" where the Russian 
soldiers were in wait after years of preparation 
and determination, the great powers became 
doubtful and uncertain as to the degree of Jap- 
anese strength. Battle succeeded battle. The 

[194] 



THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 

pygmy nation fought against and won from the 
giant of Europe and Asia. The mere mention 
of a cossack is the terror of Europe, according 
to Napoleon. Yet the Russian soldiers — de- 
feated, defeated, and defeated — ^finally saw the 
futility of their early boast that they would 
wipe out the Japanese from the face of the 
earth. With the progress of their defeat, they 
finally began to complain of the maladministra- 
tion of their government, so that they would 
not fight. 

Since then the army of Japan became the star 
attraction of the military powers. When the 
attention of the first powers are thus directed 
to it, if we spend a few moments in learning 
how the soldiers have been trained and are now 
being trained, we hope it will not be uninstruc- 
tive to the reader. 

Si;c. 89. How Soldiers Were Trained in the 
Barliest Ages: The treacherous aborigines were 
a constant menace to the peaceful Imperial rule. 
It was these barbarians, for the suppression of 
whom the Emperor Keiko, the twelfth Emperor, 
is noted in the ancient military annals for the 
deputation of his only son, Prince Yamatodake. 

[195] 





BQSHSBSBl 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

In the reign of Emperor Tenchi, the con- 
scription law was made known and then mili- 
tary institutions were everywhere established. 
The Emperor Tenchi transformed the military 
system of the times and the soldiers were or- 
ganized into different regiments, battalions, 
brigades, companies, and sections. According 
to the rule, one-third of the adult male inhab- 
itants were conscribed as soldiers and they were 
subjected to rigorous military training. About 
one hundred years later, 740 A. D., Emperor 
Shomu made still further changes, so that the 
young men of promising marksmanship and 
good horsemen were chosen and sent to dif- 
ferent military schools of the land. 

However, after feudalism ushered in a class 
of professional or hereditary soldiers, they 
trained their sons in their own professions until 
the dawn of the present era. 

S:ec. 90. The Rise of a Great Man in the Last 
Shogunate Regime: The unique system of Jap- 
anese military training had its germs in the last 
Shogunate government. li, a conspicuous figure 
of progressive parties under the regime of the 
last Shogun, was not only famous in taking de- 

[196] 



THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 



cided steps in admitting the foreigners, for 
Japan's trade, but also in re-organizing the mili- 
tary system. It was in a way the last dying effort 
to preserve the existence of the Shogunate gov- 
ernment. His scheme, however, was compari- 
tively modest as it did not contemplate a total 
effective force of more than 13,000 men whose 
drill and equipment was far from perfect. This 
number or even a greater number of men could 
have been well equipped if li had been given a 
free hand, as he was a very capable and far- 
seeing person. In spite of opposition not only 
within his own party but also from without, he 
opened the country to foreigners. Let us re- 
member the force of his character. 

Sec. 91. Who Are Soldiers in Japan: 
The idea of the present Japanese system 
when compared with the last one mentioned 
is, as a matter of course, seen to be a great deal 
more effective. In the first year of Meiji, or 
1868 A. D., the year in which the present Em!- 
peror came to the throne, further changes were^., 
made in the Department of the Army and the 
Navy. Military conscription was published by 
the Imperial Edict of 1871, and in the follow- 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

ing year the navy and the army was separated, 
and each had an independent department. Six 
miHtary divisions were organized in the eigh- 
teenth year of the present Emperor, in 1855 ; 
these were further increased to twelve divi- 
sions after the war with China of 1894-5, and 
quadrupled after the Russian-Japanese war. 

The present government conscribes all citi- 
zens of Japan to do their military duty for a 
certain number of years. It is the pride of the 
Japanese people to fulfill this requirement. At 
the present time the population of Japan is over 
48,000,000, and continues to increase very rap- 
idly. Obeying the rule that every male citizen 
over twenty years of age shall bear arms, the 
government would have more soldiers at any 
one time than is needed. Therefore to check 
the ever-increasing applicants and to meet the 
requirement of the peace footing great discrim- 
inations are made, and each applicant is sub- 
mitted to most rigorous physical examinations. 
The result is that only those who are physically 
perfect can enter the army. The Japanese 
army, therefore, comprises a living and intelli- 



[198] 



THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 

gent fighting force of the very greatest per- 
fection. 

Sec. 92. Study of the Japanese Soldiers: 
Senator Tillman, v^hen speaking to the 
author about the Japanese, said: "The best 
goods come in small packages." While appre- 
ciating the kind remarks made to him by Sen- 
ator Tillman, he would like to add that in in- 
dividual strength to stand hard study, and the 
power of willingness to obey orders, the Jap- 
anese may be larger than others. 

In the barracks the officers share in all the 
exercises of the soldiers and they are always on 
duty so that there exists complete harmony be- 
tween the officers and the soldiers. Every 
officer has to receive rigorous military train- 
ing in the colleges. One that is commonly 
known as the Tokyo Military College, is lo- 
cated at Ichigai, Tokyo. The military college 
has the departments of infantry, cavalry, for- 
tress artillery, field artillery, engineering, and 
training. 

The students must take the requirement irre- 
spective of his choice of arms, which are: 
Tactics, science of artillery, fortification, topog- 

[199] 




LIFE OF JAU 

'^^'"^X _ 

raphy, military administration, field hygiene, 
the care of horses, foreign languages, and sur- 
veying. In addition to the above subjects they 
are required to take exercise in drilling, gym- 
nastics, fencing, sabre use, shooting, riding, 
and jiujitsu. This is followed by annual mili- 
tary manoeuvers at the end of October. In 
order to attain higher military training the 
graduate officers enter the Military Staff Col- 
lege. The lieutenants and sub-lieutenants are 
eligible to admission to the college when they 
satisfy the faculty of their physical health, in- 
tellectual qualifications, morals and diligence. 
An applicant to the Military Staff College 
must have been in all cases in the regiments 
or battalions for a period of not less than 
two years. The college course is three years 
in length. There are, in addition to the 
above named college, the following, all of 
which are open to the military officers : College 
of Artillery and Engineering, College of Gun- 
nery and Field Artillery, College of Gunnery 
^and Fortress Artillery, College of Cavalry 
ining, Toyama Military College, College of 




/ 




THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 



lege of Milita- 



Military Adminls^ati'ofl, ' 
and Veterinary Surgeons. 

S^c. 93. President Roosevelt and General^ 
Chaffee Speak of the Japanese Soldiers: Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, speaking about the Japanese 
soldiers, said : "The Japanese have given us 
a good lesson by the way they handled their 
army in the recent war. One of the rea- 
sons why their medical department did well — 
the main reason — was the fact that they had 
been practiced in time of peace in doing the 
duties they would have to do in war." Such an 
utterance from the lips of the American Presi- 
dent and the famous "Rough Rider," is the 
greatest compliment to the Japanese soldiers. 
General Chaffee, too, among good things about 
them of which the Japanese can be proud, said : 
"There are certain lessons which the armies of 
the world might study with profit, and which 
are also of interest to the public." The Amer- 
ican military commander went on to state that 
"the most important is the manner in which the 
Japanese army is recruited and the ease with 
which the government was able to place three- 
quarters of a million of trained men in the field 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

within a few months after the declaration of 
war. Every one of them was an educated sol- 
dier, who understood his duty and was able to 
perform it. It was not necessary for the re- 
cruiting or mustering officers to break in awk- 
ward squads at any recruiting station. The 
Japanese soldier demonstrated from the mo- 
ment he put on his uniform that he not only 
knew the manual of arms, but was familiar 
with the duties of a soldier and knew how to 
take care of himself in the field, in camp and 
in battle. This is due to the thoroughness of 
the Japanese system. More than in any other na- 
tion is the army a part of the people of Japan 
and the people a part of the army." General 
Chaffee further said that in his opinion the 
number of Russian troops in Manchuria has 
been very much underestimated. "There 
were," said General Chaffee, "more than a mil- 
lion men on the Russian side before the battle 
of Mukden." 

Sec. 94. The Navy of Japan: Although there 
was naval warfare — in the second century, when 
Empress Jingo invaded Korea; in the eleventh 
century when Genji and Heike clans fought at 

[202] 




THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 

Danno-Ura ; in the following century when the 
Mongolian crusade invaded Japan ; in the thir- 
teenth century when the Japanese took aggres- 
sive action against China ; in the following cen- 
turies, when Japan renewed her attacks against 
Korea and China — their warships were not such 
as we understand them in the modern sense of 
the word. They were in the shape of armed 
merchantmen, including fishing junks. As we 
have already learned, the navy became inde- 
pendent from the army in 1872. In the same 
year, rules relating to the Levy of Seamen were 
promulgated and the system of conscription ser- 
vice begun, which in 1885 was put in force ; and 
in 1899 the voluntary service system was also 
inaugurated. 

Si)c. 95. Most Thorough Training of Naval 
Officers: The naval colleges are open for every 
young man between the ages of fifteen and 
twenty years. Entrance to the college is by com- 
petitive examinations. All married applicants 
and all those who have any blemishes of char- 
acter whatsoever are never admitted. The gov- 
ernment defrays all necessary expenses of the 
students who are admitted to this college. The 

[203] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

first examination is physical, and only those 
who are successful in this are qualified to take 
the educational examination. The educational 
examination as it exists at the present time in- 
cludes the following subjects : Algebra, plane 
geometry, plane trigonometry, Japanese liter- 
ature, composition, English grammar and 
translation, physics, chemistry, history, geog- 
raphy, hand sketching, and mechanical draw- 
ing. The French, German, and Russian lan- 
guages are optional. The college course, which 
is three years in length, comprises the following 
lines of work : In the first year, gunnery 
course requires four hours a week ; seamanship, 
four; engineering, one; English, five; physics 
and chemistry, five and one-half ; mathematics, 
six and one-half; making a total of twenty- 
eight hours of study each week. The second 
year's course comprises for gunnery, four 
hours a week; for seamanship, three; for tor- 
pedo instruction, one; for engineering, three; 
for mathematics, five. The third year course 
comprises three hours a week for gunnery; 
four for seamanship; four for torpedo instruc- 
tion; seven for navigation; one for engineer- 

[204] 






THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 



ing; six for English; three for mathematics 
and statistics. The course in seamanship com- 
prises the international law of the high seas; 
signalling; shipbuilding; preservation of ships 
and their construction; provisioning. In the 
course of navigation, the studies of meteorologi- 
cal observation and surveying are both in- 
cluded. In addition to these courses there are 
lectures on international law and naval history. 
The cadets who have passed the final examina- 
tions are promoted to midshipmen. The mid- 
shipman first serves on a special training-ship, 
then in the ships of the standing fleet. In both 
of these capacities they are rigorously required 
to put in practice what they have been taught 
in the colleges. 

Sec. 96. The Naval Colleges: There are two 
naval colleges, one in Etajima and the other in 
Tokyo. The latter is the higher naval college 
and is established for the purpose of training 
lieutenants and sub-lieutenants. Admission to 
this college is also competitive. The college 
course is two years in length, and has four dif- 
ferent courses. The subjects taught in these 
courses are strategy, tactics, naval history, mili- 




[205] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

tary administration, political economy, gun- 
nery, torpedoes, navigation, ship-building, en- 
gineering, etc. In addition to the two most im- 
portant colleges already named above it may be 
proper to add the College at Yakosuka, the 
Naval Medical College, Paymasters Training 
School, and the Nautical College at Tokyo. In 
conclusion, those Japanese who claim that their 
navy is as complete if not better than that of 
any other nation, had better leave this problem 
to the solution of the world's naval experts. 

Sec 97. The Authorities of the World Speak 
for the Japanese Navy: However, it may be 
justice to add a few words as to the causes of 
their success in the practical engagements with 
the navy of Russia. You know of the rapidity 
with which the Japanese officers and sailors 
struck the first blow at Chemulpo and Port Ar- 
thur, and the phenomenal success which at- 
tended those daring naval operations, involving 
as they did the paralysis of the Russian navy, 
and the final success in the Sea of Japan, secur- 
ing at the same time the full command of the 
Eastern seas, have served not only to raise the 
prestige of Japan enormously, but also has 

[206] 



THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 

caused them to become the subject of the ad- 
miration of the whole world. "J^P^^ won," 
says a French naval expert, a well known 
deputy who had been Minister of Marine, 
"because from the first to the last they fought 
in obedience to the eternal principles of 
naval war, because they knew that the com- 
mand of the sea meant nothing but the security 
of maritime communications; without it they 
could do nothing, with it they could do every- 
thing, and that the only way to obtain it was to 
destroy or render impotent all the available 
naval forces of the enemy. That is one of the 
great lessons." 

After all, as all the authorities agree— the 
United States, England, Germany, France, 
Russia, Italy — it must be admitted that the war 
was decided, as naval wars always have been 
decided, not by the ships and fleets engaged, but 
by the men of Japan who handled the ships 
and who fought with the guns. 

Sec. 98. Origin of the Red Cross Society in 
Japan: Perhaps the best institution as an integral 
part of the navy and the army, and as a philan- 
thropic and humanitarian establishment, is the 

[207] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 




Red Cross Society of Japan, which the author 
believes to be entitled to your brief comment. 
The Red Cross Society owes it origin to the 
southwestern civil war, in 1877, which was the 
last that ever occurred in Japan, It was then 
named the Universal Benevolent Society or 
"Haku-ai-sha." This philanthropic organiza- 
tion amended its articles of association in 1887, 
and joined the Red Cross Convention of Ge- 
neva, changing its name to the Red Cross Soci- 
ety of Japan or "Seki-jiu-ji-sha." The mem- 
bers then enlisted were about 2,100, but in 1902 
it had grown to no less than 796,045. 

Si;c. 99. The Red Cross in Chinese- Japanese 
War: The work undertaken by the society made 
a creditable record on the occasion of the 
Japan-China war. The officials and nurses of 
the society took charge of and cared for loi,- 
423 invalids, including 1,484 prisoners of war. 
The society has also undertaken several times 
to nurse the wounded in calamities, accidental 
and natural. Among the principal cases we 
may mention, the eruption of Mount Bandai 
in 1888, the shipwreck of the Turkish man-of- 
war in 1890, the disastrous earthquake of Mino 

[208] 



J53SI9'- 






THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 

and Owari, in the following year, the tidal 
waves in Sanriku, and the earthquake at Akita 
in 1898, the fire at Hachoji in 1897, and the 
famine of the Northern provinces in 1906, not 
mentioning the benevolent work the local 
branches of the society undertook at every time 
of flood or other disaster which overtook the 
provinces near them. 

Sec. 100. The Red Cross at Opening of Japa- 
nese-Russian War: There were many defective 
points in the internal arrangement of the society, 
but they have been completely removed since the 
Japanese-Chinese war of 1894, and the society 
as well as local branches are no longer subject to 
inconvenience as regards materials and person- 
nel. The society, the head office and branches 
as well, maintains a regular system of train- 
ing nurses which was begun in 1890. The 
term of training at the head office extends over 
a period of three years, and that of the branches 
one year. When the Russian- Japanese war 
broke out the society discharged its duty with 
signal efficiency. In September, 1905, the 
members of the society numbered 1,035,000. 
To conclude, it is perhaps most fair, from 

[209] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

the nature of the subject, to say in the words 
of an American lady and representative of the 
American National Red Cross, Miss Mabel 
T. Boardman, during a conversation with the 
author: "The Japanese Red Cross is the most 
efficient of all." 



"When others blame thee, blame them not; 
When others are angry at thee, return not anger, 
Joy Cometh only as Passion and Desire part." 

Kumasawa. 



[210] 




EDUCATION IN JAPAN 



CHAPTER XVI 



I am never easy, when handling a thought, till I have 
bounded it north, and bounded it south, and bounded 
it east, and bounded it west. — Lincoln. 



Education in Japan 

Skc. ioi. Bducction in the Old Regime: 
There exists ample evidence that even in an- 
cient times culture and learning attained a 
high degree of development. However, the 
system of education in vogue prior to the re- 
storation of the Imperial Government in 1868, 
and its scope and operation was narrow and 
limited. It was more of the humanity studies 
than anything else, in the modern sense of the 
term. It has been only since Perry's expedi- 
tion to the hitherto forbidden see of Uraga that 
modern education has flourished in Japan. 

Sec. 102. American Hducators in the Bduca- 
tion of Japan: The gift by the United States of 

[211] 




nsBm 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

$750,000 for Japanese education did not exhaust 
the interest taken by American people toward 
the educational advancement of Japan. The best 
educators in the United States thoroughly dis- 
cussed the matter, made lists of the best educa- 
tional standards in every branch of science, lit- 
erature, art and law, and many competent 
teachers went to Japan to personally inspect, es- 
tablish and superintend the educational inter- 
ests of that country, and Christian mission- 
aries took a leading part in this magnanimous 
work. Some of the most prominent scientists 
were also in the van of disseminating the ad- 
vantages of education among the Japanese 
youth. By the advice of the first United States 
Minister Harris the Shogunate, in the spring 
of i860, equipped a large number of young 
aspirants for governmental honors, and sent 
them abroad to pursue various courses of 
learning and to familiarize themselves, each 
in his own specialty, with every branch of mod- 
ern civilization. Sixty-five of these Japanese 
students after completing their respective 
courses returned permeated with the best learn- 
ing of the age, as the standard bearers of mod- 

[212] 



EDUCATION IN JAPAN 



ern enlightenment in their country. In 1872 
the Emperor sent abroad, for a Hke purpose, a 
similar embassy of forty-nine young men. In 
all due haste this Imperial embassy gathered 
their various stores of information and 
promptly returned to augment the first fruits 
of the Shogun's embassy. Many members of 
both these embassies are now in the highest 
positions of trust in the realm. Thenceforth 
the stream from Japan of ambitious youth in 
search of foreign lore has been continuous, 
until at the present day Japan is pushing well 
to the front in every branch of modern ad- 
vancement. Christian institutions, mechanical 
and mercantile establishments, colleges, and 
universities, founded by Americans or by Jap- 
anese from America, through the length and 
breadth of Japan, have all contributed to a re- 
sult unprecedented in the history of any nation. 
Sec 103. The Famous Imperial Rescript on 
Bducation: Before entering into a brief observa- 
tion of the educational institutions, let us in- 
scribe here, as a matter of historical importance, 
the much commented upon and criticised "Kio- 
iku-Choku-go" or "Imperial Rescript on Educa- 



[213] 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

tion," which was issued by His Majesty in 
1890, and reads as follows : 

"Our ancestors founded the State on a vast basis, 
while their virtues were deeply implanted, and our sub- 
jects by their unanimity in their great loyalty and filial 
affection, have in all ages shown them in perfection. 
Such is the essential beauty of Our National Polity, 
and such, too, is the true spring of Our Educational 
System. You, our beloved subjects, be filial to your 
parents, afifectionate to your brothers, be loving hus- 
bands and wives, and truthful to your friends. Conduct 
yourselves with modesty, and be benevolent to all. 
Develop your intellectual faculties and perfect your 
moral powers by gaining knowledge and by acquiring 
a profession. Further, promote the public interests and 
advance the public affairs; ever respect the national 
constitution and obey the laws of the country; and in 
case of emergency, courageously sacrifice yourselves to 
the public good. Thus offer every support to Our Im- 
perial Majesty, which shall be lasting as the universe. 
You will then not only be our most loyal subjects, but 
will be enabled to exhibit the noble character of our 
ancestors. 

"Such are the testaments left us by our ancestors, 
which must be observed alike by their descendants and 
subjects. These precepts are perfect throughout all 
ages and of universal application. It is our desire to 

[214] 



EDUCATION IN JAPAN 

bear them in our heart in common with you, our sub- 
jects, to the end that we may constantly possess these 
virtues." 

Sec. 104. The Educational Institutions: The 
government makes compulsory the educa- 
tion of children of school-going age; yet the 
parents appear more anxious than the govern- 
ment in this respect, which is demonstrated by 
the establishment of kindergarten schools, both 
public and private. There is scarcely one in- 
corporated city without the kindergarten. 

The institutions maintained by the Depart- 
ment of Education are called government in- 
stitutions, while those maintained at the local 
district or corporation expense are called pub- 
lic or communal schools. According to the of- 
ficial records there are 29,335 public and pri- 
vate schools, consisting of Primary, Blind and 
Deaf and Dumb, Normal, Higher Normal, 
Middle, Girls' High, High, Universities, Girls' 
Universities, Special, Technical. Professors 
and teachers number 118,104, allotted to 
5,265,000 students and pupils. 

Se;c. 105. The Weather Bureau: In the main, 
the Japanese government is ever attentive in 

[215] 



*iisS^ 




LIFE OF JAPAN 



the affairs of education; the Japanese have all 
necessary institutions founded upon the most 
modern principles of education. The students 
are very earnest, diligently devoting themselves 
to literature, to arts, to sciences, and to all other 
subjects of learning, to cope with students of 
any country. 

Outside of the schools, and the students who 
devote themselves to study as we have above 
enumerated, there are other institutions that 
are worthy of notice in connection with the 
education of Japan. They are the institutions 
wherein the farmers, miners, and other common 
mass of millions are receiving the benefit of in- 
structions in the application of the most modern 
of science and art to their daily labor. For in- 
stance : There are thirty-eight agricultural ex- 
periment stations in Japan. They are impress- 
ing the common farmers with the importance 
of scientific knowledge of farming, as the three 
essential ingredients of fertilizers, the selection 
of seeds and so forth. In these stations are 
^/ conducted scientific researches into the theory of 

/■; agriculture, agricultural chemistry, entomology, 

^, vegetable pathology, tobacco culture, horticul- 

[216] 



EDUCATION IN JAPAN 



ture, Stock-breeding, etc. On the other hand 
the miners are individually brought in contact 
with the most advanced mining engineers, geo^ 
logical surveyors, etc. This is being done to 
encourage the development of mining industry 
along scientific methods. 

A meteorological observatory was estab- 
lished at Hokkaido as early as 1875, and to-day 
there are 134 meteorological stations. The 
daily weather map, the monthly weather re- 
view, the monthly report, and the annual re- 
port are being published and circulated at large 
and they are reputed as the most trustworthy of 
their kind in the world. And at the Central Me- 
teorological Observatory the observers are 
taught and trained in meteorology, seismology, 
physics, the use of instruments and methods, etc. 
Japan indeed has struggled in discovery and ap- 
plication of the theory and practice of the sci- 
ences, and her people having contributed greatly 
to the dynamics and physics of earth's intellec- 
tual atmosphere and to the allied sciences in gen- 
eral, she stands to-day pre-eminently in the sci- 
entific civilization of the world. 



[217] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

From a typical American educator to the author: 
"Two cities of about the same size and relative im- 
portance are Paris and Tokyo. No two could show 
a greater contrast in spirit. Both are, in a sense, cities 
of pleasure. Tokyo is a city of continuous joyousness., 
little pleasures drawn from simple things which leave 
no sting. Paris is feverish and feels the 'difference in 
the morning,' the 'hard, fierce lust and cruel deed.' 

"No one who catches the spirit of Paris can fail to 
miss the underlying sadness, the pity of it all. The 
spirit of Tokyo — not of all Tokyo, but of its life as a 
whole — is fresh as the song of birds, as 'sweet as chil- 
dren's prattle is,' and it is good order to be under its 
spell." — David Starr Jordan. 



[218] 




PAR.T III 




" How glorious would it be if some day we may be 
fortunate enough to establish a Congress of the United 
States of Japan and America. " 




" How glorious would it be if some day we may be 
fortunate enough to establish a Congress of the United 
States of Japan and America. " 




4,, JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 




^i::^_^_CHApTER 



XVIF^ 



"And when, on this our Festival day, 

Spontaneous mercy to display, 
Our Emp'ror gave us, frank and free. 

Constitutional Liberty, 
Was ever nation blest as we? 

Oh, happy day for me and mine 
That gave us our Imperial line." 



Takasaki. 



Japanese Constitutional 

.Government 

"SSL 1 

Sec. io6. Old and New ConsHtutmn^rt-^'' 
constitutional government means certain fixed 
rules and principles, under which a gov- 
ernment is carried on, the most important of| 
which is that the people have a voice in all de- 
liberations prior to the making of any new law, 
then Japan has, from time immemorial, 
sessed it in some measure. If it means "Gov- 
ernment by the people, for the people," then.| 
Japan never possessed anything of the kind 

[221] fi^ 



cc 





_il. 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

until the Japanese constitution was promul- 
gated on February ii, 1889. 

A brief examination of the Constitution of 
Old Japan is not only of historical interest, but 
also essential to show clearly the contrast be- 
tween the old and new constitution. 

The Japanese during the twenty-five and a 
half centuries they have lived in one archi- 
pelago, consisting of about 4,000 islands, 
hemmed in by the natural boundaries of the 
seas, have evolved a system of government 
peculiar to themselves — a system of mutual 
independence and yet of confederation among 
the different islands. The early history of the 
Japanese before the Christian era, like that of 
Greece and Rome, is a history of incessant 
warfare and conflict between the different 
tribes. This constant warfare and conflict 
finally resulted in the consolidation of the Jap- 
anese people into one political unit and the birth 
of a national consciousness. 

Sec. 107. The Japanese Constitution in the 
Earliest Ages: The progress of political fusion 
in the early history of Japan was slow and al- 
ways limited by the necessities of the case. It 

[222] 



JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 

progressed only through necessity, or the new- 
statesmanship which the new order demanded. 

The incessant conflict among the different 
tribes — either in the suppression of tribal 
uprisings or in the defense of the islands against 
foreign invaders, caused the rise of the middle 
class. The rise of the middle class means the 
entering wedge against despotism and the pre- 
vention of national ruin. 

When a country is in its infancy the scepter 
and the sword must follow each other, there- 
fore the king decides quarrels, declares customs 
and leads the people in war. But after a while 
the community extends by absorbing others in 
contest or by natural progress of growth, and 
can no longer assemble in its entirety to express 
its assent or dissent on matters of common in- 
terest. The various duties of the King pass 
into the hands of ministers, sometimes with 
the result, noticeable in the English Constitu- 
tion, that the King comes to be regarded as in- 
capable of discharging the duties for himself. 

The ideals of the middle class naturally in- 
cline toward a military spirit. The soldiery 



[223] 





LIFE OF JAPAN 



and the middle class in ancient Japan were orife 
and the same thing. 

Sec. io8. Japanese Administrative System 
During the Feudal age the Emperor was re 
duced to a mere figurehead. Still, he was the. 
sovereign just the same. The present constitu*' 
tion of Japan construes the position of E'' 
peror during the Feudal ages in the folloxjji 
few words : 

"The unity of political powers weakened 
during the middle ages, by a succession of civil 
commotions." 

As it was written elsewhere, during the 
Feudal age Japan was parcelled out into fiefs, 
each under a separate Daimio or Feudal baron. 
The territory of each Daimio was politically 
and socially independent from that of every 
other fief, and the laws and customs of each 
territory were often the very antithesis of those 
of adjacent fiefs. 

The Shogunate family has in every case 
three or more branches or houses; the succes- 
sor to the Shogunate, being always chosen 
when the Shogun had no son, from one of these 
families. Next to them in rank came the 



[224] 






;apanese constitutional government 

Feudal barons7 who were of greaf^^werT They 
were allies rather than subjects. Next to them 
in rank came the nobles, who were descended 
from some of the numerous progeny of a Sho- 
gun. Next in rank and power were the Feudal 
barons who were eligible to membership in the 
Central Council of the Feudal government. 
These privileges were attached to these ranks 
for the token in return for ancestral submission 
in the decisive feudal war of the country. The 
Feudal barons must send their representatives 
who establish their headquarters in the seat of 
the Shogun's government; the representatives 
may change frorri time to time, but their head- 
quarters and offices remain the same. 

The Shogun government was carried on for 
these nobles by the vassals who held fiefs of 
them. These vassals constituted the Samurai 
or military retainers. In short, these retainers 
of the Feudal barons were eligible to the of- 
fices of the administration within the limit of 
the territory of the particular baron. 

The judges, legislatives, executives and offi- 
cers of respective provinces were chosen from 
the Samurai and the Samurai alone. 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

Such was really the form and relation to each 
other of the parts of the Feudal government 
and the rulers who regulated the various ad- 
ministrative affairs. 

In theory the Japanese people autocratically 
ruled under the Feudal system; they have 
always been able to make their wishes known to 
the authorities about them. The peasants and 
farmers of the country villages had access to 
the local retainers, the retainers in their turn 
had access to the government of the Feudal 
lord, so that the history of every clan teems 
with instances in which the policy of the 
Feudal government was shaped by the will, 
deferentially expressed, of the retainers. In 
the same way the Government of the Shogun 
was always accessible to the counsels, deferen- 
tially tendered, of the Feudal barons. When 
some great crisis threatened the Empire, as for 
instance, the question of the introduction of 
foreign residents and merchants into the coun- 
try, the Great Councils of the Feudal barons met 
for the purpose of deliberating with the govern- 
ment on the needs of the empire. 



[226] 



JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 

Sec. 109. Beginning of Constitutional Gov- 
ernment in Japan: But constitutional govern- 
ment, or government by the people, for the peo- 
ple, in the modern sense of the term, was quite 
unknown. The first glimmering of the idea may 
be seen in the oath which his present majesty 
took on the occasion of the resumption by the 
crown of executive powers at his accession. The 
imperial oath was published on the i6th of April, 
1868, in which his majesty declared that "Men 
should meet in council from all parts of the 
country, and all affairs of State be determined 
by public opinion." 

In September of the same year Imperial 
notifications were issued in which it was de- 
clared that "Public sentiment as expressed by 
the councilors selected from all parts was to 
be the directing power in the future, because 
the private caprice of any one individual should 
not be allowed to control the empire." In 
April of the following year (1869), another 
imperial notification was issued, which an- 
nounced that his majesty would shortly proceed 
to the eastern portion of his empire, that is, to 
Tokyo, when he would summon together his 

[227] 




QBiHSBSB 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

ministers and the chiefs of the people in order 
that public opinion might be consulted, that the 
foundations of the nation might be laid upon 
a basis which should secure national tranquil- 
ity. The history of the Meiji era, from the ac- 
cession of his present majesty to the final pro- 
mulgation of the constitution in 1889, shows 
us how constantly the Imperial Government 
kept before its eyes the principles laid down 
in the oath of accession and subsequent notifi- 
cations. 

Sec. 1 10. Preparing a Written Constitution: 
In the meantime every effort was put forth 
to gather the experience and wisdom necessary 
for the undertaking. A special mission, headed 
by the late Prince Iwakura, left Japan for the 
United States and Europe in 1871, its main ob- 
ject being to secure, if possible, the revision of 
the treaties in which Japan was made to recog- 
nize the extra-territorial rights of foreign resi- 
dents in Japan, and the embassy was also in- 
structed to pay special attention to the political 
institutions of the countries they visited. In 
addition to Prince Iwakura, the embassy includ- 
ed, Kido, Okubo, Ito, Yamaguchi — all men 

[228] 



£E 



JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 



who exercised great influence over the subse- 
quent destinies of their country. It was a 
period then, as now, when many Japanese were 
abroad for the purpose of study; and many 
forms of constitutional government were 
brought home for discussion. The great diffi- 
culty was in selecting a model for imitation. 

The Constitution of the United States, the 
time-honored Constitution of Great Britain, the 
Charter of the then newly organized French 
Republic, and the conservative part of the Ger- 
man Constitution, were some of the models pre- 
sented. 

In 1 88 1 his majesty proclaimed that he 
would, in the year 1890, summon a parliament 
to meet for the transaction of government busi- 
ness. 

Sdc. III. RrQclqMation of the Imperial Con- 
stitution: The promise to summon a parliament 
in 1890 involved the drafting of a constitution 
previous to that date. The eight years which 
followed the imperial promise were therefore 
years of great activity, both in and outside the 
government circles. Outside the government 
influence the ■ pg>litiGal mrties were organized, 



9] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

and reorganized with a view to the exigencies 
of parliamentary activity. In the government 
circles the departments of education and of the 
interior were busy with reforms, and prominent 
lawyers were employed in connection with the 
department of justice. A special department 
of the household was created, called the Seido- 
tori Shirabe Kioku, or Bureau for the Investi- 
gation of the Constitution. And at last, on 
February ii, 1889, on the festival of Kigen- 
setsu, long celebrated in Japan in memory of 
her first Emperor, Jimmu, but now doubly dear 
by reason of this later event, was promulgated as 
a free gift from the Emperor — the constitu- 
tion which forms the precious charter of Jap- 
anese liberty. 

The Constitution of Japan is not like the 
Magna Charta, wrung by rebellious subjects 
from an unwilling king, but it is an imperial 
gift, voluntarily bestowed upon the grateful 
Japanese by the present Emperor. The Jap- 
anese Constitution gives to the country a Diet, 
with an upper and lower house. In the upper 
house of the Japanese parliament sit the royals, 
nobles and peers, and members appointed by 

[230] 



JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 

the crown. In the lower house of the Japanese 
Diet, Hke that of the United States Congress, 
sit representatives of the people, freely elected 
by those who are citizens of the country. 

The Imperial Diet must be convoked every 
year, and its session lasts three months. The 
duration of a session may be prolonged, or an 
extra session may be convoked if necessary, by 
imperial order. Both houses of the Imperial 
Diet may respectively present addresses to the 
Emperor, and may also receive petitions pre- 
sented by subjects. 

In Japan no person can be a member of both 
houses at the same time. Freedom of speech 
and debate, or proceedings in parliament, 
are not to be impeached in any court. 
Whatever matter arises in either house of par- 
liament is to be examined in that house to 
which it relates, and not elsewhere. The ad- 
journment of either house takes place at its 
own discretion, unaffected by the proceedings 
of the other house. Prorogation, or dissolu- 
tion, takes place by the exercise of the royal 
prerogative. 



[231] 




LIFE OF 'jXkvN 

Sec. 112. The Japanese Constitution Co% 
pared With That of the United States: Ameri- 
can lawyers treating the Japanese constitu- 
tion must bear in mind that the sovereignty 
of the empire was always with the Emperor. 
From the establishment of the state, down 
through the feudal ages, the emperors ac- 
knowledged no legal rule binding upon them. 

Speaking comparatively of the constitutions 
of Japan and the United States, it may be 
asserted that in Japan the sovereignty is as- 
scribed to the Emperor; in the United States 
it rests with the people ; in Japan the sovereign 
actually administers the government; in the 
United States never in a single instance. The 
Japanese Emperor has personal power, dignity 
and pre-eminence, as well as official ; the Ameri- 
can ruler has none but official, nor does he par- 
take in the sovereignty otherwise than as a pri- 
vate citizen.; ^^^^iniHiiiiiii 

The Japaii'b§e^n^^ution provides that the 
Emperor is the sovereign, sacred and invio- 
lable. His sovereignty and legislative power 
j^is to be concurrently exercised with that of the 
Laws are sanctioned by him and their 





JAPANESE CONSmj™ 

promulgation foffows accordingly. The m^m 
peror may issue, or cause to be issued, decrees'- 
for the better execution of the laws, the main- 
tenance of public peace and order, and the fur--^ 
therance of the welfare of his subjects. While 
he may not alter the laws he may issue the ini-'f| 
perial ordinance from time to time if he sees?i?: 
fit, and if absolutely necessary in order to guard 
the public safety and peace, or to provide 
against public disorder and calamity. The Em- 
peror's ordinance, according to the constitu- 
tion, must be sanctioned at the next session of 
the National Diet or its further operation 
lapses. 

Sec. 113. Life, Liberty, Property, and Pur- 
suit of Happiness in Japan: The constitution 
further provides that no person shall be arrested, 
detained, tried or punished without due process 
of law, or be deprived of his right to be tried by 
the judicial tribunal. The Emperor is allowed 
the full right to issue amnesties, pardons or 
commutations of sentence. No Japanese sub- 
ject shall be deprived of freedom of speech or 
writing. No special rights were given by the 
constitution^ — the rights already existing were 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

expressed and defined. With regard to writ- 
ing, the courts of justice take no notice of any 
matter intended for the press, but confine their 
legal jurisdiction to that which actually ap- 
pears in print. It will be clearly seen that the 
framers of the great Japanese charter embraced 
in it all the important constitutional safeguards 
of popular liberty. The Japanese officers ex- 
ercise their duties by the methods and within 
the limits marked out and prescribed by the 
constitution. The people rely upon the consti- 
tution when they make a claim against the 
government or sue it in a court of law, but 
the constitution limits their rights, and pre- 
scribes the methods by which those rights may 
be obtained. The constitution guarantees that 
all public meetings and social gatherings 
shall not be molested. A subject of Japan 
may live wherever he choses, and engage 
in whatever vocation he desires to follow. 
He is never to be deprived of his life, 
liberty, property and pursuit of happiness ; the 
right of the subject to be secure in his person, 
house, papers, and effects shall not be inter- 
fered with. It is understood to mean that 

[234] 




JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 

every man's house is his castle, and that he, 
under the protection of the laws, may close the 
door of his habitation and defend his privacy 
in it, not only against private individuals 
merely, but against the officers of the law and 
the state itself, when acting without due process 
of law. According to the constitution all re- 
ligions are equally respected; one is prohibited 
from being favored or discriminated against 
at the expense of the other. It further pro- 
hibits restraint upon the free exercise of re- 
ligion according to the dictates of conscience, 
and the state is not to inquire into or take 
notice of religious belief or expression so long 
as the subject performs his duty to the state 
and to his countrymen. No religious test shall 
ever be made as a requirement for appointment 
to any office or position of public trust under 
the Japanese Government. The constitution 
provides that each chief of the several execu- 
tive departments may be allowed to attend any 
debates in the National Diet and to take part in 
them, and he is not responsible to the par- 
liament, as in Englind, but directly to the sov- 
ereign, as in Germany and Denmark. 

[235] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 



*:5. 



Sec. 114. Japanese Cabinet Compared With 
Those of the United States and England: In 
the United States for all the official acts done by 
the Cabinet, ministers or secretaries, the re- 
sponsibility is on the President of the United 
States and not on the Cabinet members, but in 
Japan any official act done by the Emperor is, 
in contemplation of the constitution, done by 
the ministers of state, and the responsibility 
is upon them. To determine the responsibility 
in the United States the President is impeached 
by the Congress, judgment shall not extend 
further than to removal from office, and 
disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of 
honor, trust or profit under the United States, 
but the party convicted shall nevertheless be 
liable and subject to indictment, trial, judg- 
ment and punishment according to law. In 
England, when a minister is tried for a wrong 
committed, it is determined that the King's 
command is no excuse for a wrongful act. For 
'<a crime, or civil wrong, the person acting under 
such command would be amenable to the or- 
dinary courts of law. The English constitu- 
tion has never recognized any distinction be- 



[236] 






JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 



tween those citizens who are and those who are 
not ministers of the state in respect of the "law 
which governs their conduct or punishment 
which deals with them." Not only is the 
King's command of no avail, but a pardon, 
however formally expressed, is no defence at 
the bar of the house of lords. 

Sec. 115. King Can Do No Wrong: The 
Japanese constitution, Article 55, says in that 
respect that the "minister of state subordinates 
the King and shall be responsible thereby," and 
does not provide, like Article i. Section 3, of 
the United States constitution, nor like the Act 
of Settlement in England. Yet let us construe 
the term "responsible" within the meaning of 
the Japanese constitution. The legal responsi- 
bility of the crown, which finds expression in 
th© maxim that "the King can do no wrong," 
means, in Japan, that the law presumes that 
he would never willingly infringe its provi- 
sions. The result is a curious instance of con- 
flicting practice and theory. The sovereign 
is a party to every important act of state; he 
opens and prorogues, summons and dissolves 
parliament ; makes peace, war and treaties, etc. 

[237] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

For every act which the King must do in re- 
spect to these functions he is legally responsible. 
The result would seem to point to a grinding 
and unmitigated despotism; in fact, it effects 
a strict restraint upon the crown. For some 
one must be responsible, and the servants of 
the crown are liable for advice given as well as 
for acts done. They suffer by loss of place and 
power for unwise advice. They may suffer 
at the hands of the law for unlawful acts. So 
this combination of irresponsibility in the King 
and responsibility in his ministers has a curious 
effect — that of clipping his independent action 
and checking up correctly the balance of gov- 
ernment. 

In the main the Japanese people have a writ- 
ten constitution. Their charter of liberty will 
never yield itself to treaty or enactment; it 
neither changes with age nor bends to the force 
of circumstances. It is a law for ruler and 
people, equally in war and in peace, and pro- 
tects all men at all times and under all circum- 
stances. Therefore the Japanese have a con- 
stitutional go\iernment by the people, for the 
people, in the fullest sense of the word. 

[238] 



JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 



CHAPTER XVIII 



Japan. Under the Reign of Law^ 

Se;c. 1 1 6. Individual Relation to Society in 
the Primitive Stage: In the primitive stage the 
individual relation to society was as simple 
and submissive as the society itself, so the 
people avoided invoking the aid of the law. 
When a man had to go into litigation he first 
laid the facts before the family council, so when 
the matter was brought up in the court the 
arguments were reduced to a bare statement of 
the material facts, simply to have the matter 
adjusted, and not by rigid rules of law. Do 
not suppose, however, that the great com- 
munity century after century, with the con- 
tinuous growth of the arts of life of every 
kind — architecture, sculpture, trade and agri- 
culture — was left without any jurisprudence. 
Special protection was given to the artisans, 
and the wage-earners were always afforded 

[239] 



.•^ 






'^. 




LIFE OF JAPAN 



protection by the rigid enforcement of justice. 
All the necessary arrangements were in prac- 
tice for the protection of the mercantile com- 
munity. Agriculturists, wholesale dealers, 
brokers, and carriers from one end of the coun- 
try to the other, were peacefully engaged in their 
ever prosperous avocations, entirely satisfied 
with the system of law and equity then in vogue. 
Sec. 117. Old Japanese Laws of Wife, Hus- 
band, Family J and Succession: Meanwhile the 
primitive law of family and succession under- 
went legal evolution. In the earlier days the 
family meant the organized family like the 
Roman conception of the family. The idea was 
that all those who constitute the family were . 
bound together by paternal power. So that 
in the strictest sense, when the wife passed 
into the manus of her husband, she immediately 
submitted to a potestas, and united with her 
children as the agnatic sister. So also would 
a man's grandchildren, when deprived of his 
daughter, fall under the paternal power of their 
father. The family included only those who 
were related to the father's side. The theory 
of it all rested upon the legal relationship, so 

[240] 




JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW - 



the artificial creation or adoption which has no 
real tie of blood was received by the juristic 
bond. When later, the legal period was a step 
further advanced, the people entertained the 
theory of the conception of cognation, or 
the mother, representing the cognatic, con- 
stituting the relationship on both sides, 
based upon the natural consciousness. In brief, 
she advanced to mother from the legal posi- 
tion of sister. The doctrine of succession in 
old Japan was based upon the dominant idea that 
the family must always be preserved. The 
family must survive although the head master 
and patriarch lived and died. M all events the 
idea that the common family, with its ancestral 
tablets, family records, estate and obligation 
should be continued, was an idea so well es- 
tablished that it dominated all the rival con- 
ceptions. At all times an heir of some sort 
should represent the family for all legal pur- 
poses, and his rights were strictly guarded 
by the law. The eldest son was always given 
the honor of the heirship, which he could not 
refuse. By succession he was generally en- 
titled to one-hali of all the property left 

'" : [241] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

by the deceased, and became the head of the 
family with all its peculiar privileges to accept 
or nullify marriage, adoption, divorce, and to 
exclude members from the family, and with au- 
thority over all other matters pertaining to the 
home affairs. Recently, in this country, a Cali- 
fornia superior judge, in a divorce case, the alle- 
gation being non-support by the husband, de- 
cided that it is as much the duty of the wife to 
support the husband as it is for the husband to 
support the wife, and ordered accordingly. This 
was the idea of the Japanese people in that re- 
spect. Such was the policy of the courts of law 
and justice and their administration, and if 
Japan had not been disturbed by the exigencies 
of the times, she would have to-day this same 
continuous principle of jurisprudence. But the 
decree of God ordered otherwise. 

Sec. 1 1 8. Historical Epoch of the Departure 
From Old Japanese Laws: The empire was 
threatened by the immigration of foreigners. 
The restoration of the Emperor bound the 
various fiefs into one national unit under the 
direct control of the central government. Five 
hereditary classes or castes, the Samurai or 

[242] 




JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 

military retainers, the agriculturists, the arti- 
sans and merchants, as well as eta, were 
abolished, and all were given equal rights be- 
fore the law. Each member of the family be- 
came directly responsible, not to a Daimio, but 
to the national government. This historical 
epoch of the departure from Japan's histori- 
cal jurisprudence dates from the arrival of the 
United States expedition to Japan. The laws 
of Japan are now very well compiled and codi- 
fied. The codes of laws are made up of rights 
rather than of duties. In Europe and America, 
where the laws are comparatively uniform and 
equally developed, the codification is more a 
question of form and arrangement. But in 
Japan the laws were codified from the stand- 
point of substance rather than of form and ar- 
rangement. The sudden opening of the coun- 
try and the unexpected intercourse with other 
countries made it absolutely necessary that the 
laws be codified, and so the work was hastily 
done, and as thoroughly as practicable. Codi- 
fication was necessary to meet the social and 
political reform of the time. The advance in 
the remedial branch of the law has not kept 

[243] 



WB^inssm 






Ul'li (JK jM'AN 

pace with tlic advance in the substantive l.iw. 
Sfion .iflcr the sudden change of old into new 
|.-i|);in, ,111(1 hefoie the code of laws was coni- 
l>lclc(|, \\\r (otirls were in a diMicnll position. 
Tije judiciaries appointed a commissioner to 
investigate the laws of foreign countries, and 
to try .'Uid get help from those laws. The 
judges administered justice according to I lie 
exigency of the moment, and according to their 
own arbitrary views of the l.iw. Their views 
resembled somewii.il the ecpiity jurisprudence 
of this coinitry, until tiiey were superseded by 
the piomidg.'ition of the code of laws, as the 
iCdiclinii rcrpetnnm of jnlianns in the reign of 
I l.'idi i.'in. 

vSi'X'. J K). Japan Sliidics Laivs of Europe 
and the United SUilcs: A bureau was estab- 
lished for the investigation of judicial institu- 
tions in i<H/(), and the woik of codilicalion he- 
g.in with it. A distinction between the courts 
of law and executive ol'lices was established two 
years later, and in the following year the rules 
of pleading, providing how a cause of action 
should be prosecuted, was |)romulgate(l. The 
statutes were enacted in 1H75, to decide the 

U'-Ml 




JAI'AN IINDI'-.K 'I'llI'. Kl'.KiN <>1'' LAW 



IK-lilioiis or (oniplaiiils and llic ciisloinary of 
eciuity laws supplied llio dcliciciicy wliicli llic 
statutes had not provided. 'iMic l-rendi nnW.S 
and the eminent iMeneh jurists were ((msiiHcd 
.-md the penal code and <(mIc of erinnnal pro 
a'<line were a(io|)te«l Ironi Mieni. 'riic civil 
cdc, coniniereial e(.de, and oHier auxiliary 
laws were also lakcn Ironi llie ImcihIi juris- 
l)rudenee. That sysleni ol law was followed 
because Ihe laws of Ihe code were lahidaled lo- 
jrether in so many articles, a,de<|ua.le to the 
needs of Ihe lime, although a lar^e number of 
the j^entlemeii on the coniniitlee ihoUKh' 'hat 
the AukIo American laws were as systematic 
and scienlilic as Ihe iMcnch laws. In i<^7<) a 
draft was submilled to the council of the ('.en- 
roin, the deliberalive assembly then existin^,^ 
the ni<-nibei;, of which were a|>poinled by the 
iCmperor, and the council, in tnni, ap|)ointe(l 
the members of the codiheation coniniitlee to 
draft laws and make a report, and their report 
was a|)pioved by that COtlucil in \H<)<k When 
the codes were ixiblished they were subject(rd 
to severe criticism by the public; some of the 
peoi)le fav(;re(l the laws and others insisted on 

[^451 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

a revision. In March, 1893, a commission con- 
sisting of members of both the upper and lower 
houses, professors of law, members of the bar 
and the bench, and prominent financiers and 
merchants, was appointed by an imperial edict 
to investigate the laws of the land. Three years 
later the commission submitted a report which 
was adopted by the Imperial Diet, and the 
whole went into operation on the i6th of July, 
1898. Thus, the present code of laws has con- 
summated the social and political evolution, ex- 
tending over the two decades of the present 
progressive Japan. The present system of 
judicature is uniform — established throughout 
the whole empire — and is concurrently and in- 
dependently operated with full force. 

Sec. 120. The Present Japanese Laws: It 
may be stated that the Japanese have all their 
laws written in a legal order. Some of the prin- 
cipal Japanese laws are the constitution, the civil 
and commercial, criminal and administrative 
laws, the law of application, and the law for the 
organization of the courts, the laws regulating 
special tribunals for administrative claims, the 
laws governing municipalities, the laws of civil 



246] 



JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 

procedure, and criminal procedure, the civil ser- 
vice law, election law, the imperial house law, 
state finance law, public land law, naval and mili- 
tary law, general municipal law, pref ectural law, 
village and town law, tax law, postal, telegraph 
and telephone laws, mining law, fishery law, 
navigation law, forestry law, hunting law, 
banking law, insurance law, railroad law, nat- 
uralization law, bankruptcy law. 

Sec. 121. The Japanese Courts: There are 
four grades of courts of law. Their jurisdic- 
tions, both civil and criminal, are concurrently 
exercised, differing according to the subject- 
matter, either in respect of the amount involved 
in civil matters, or in extent of penalties in crimi- 
nal cases. Appeals lie from the lower courts 
to the higher ones, either on points of law or of 
fact, as well as on errors in the conduct of the 
trial. The Precinct Court and the District Court 
are the trial courts, while the Court of Appeals 
and the Supreme Court are the review courts. 
All matters not exceeding the value of lOO yen 
come under the jurisdiction of the Precinct 
Court. The jurisdiction of the Precinct Court 
extends to all cases arising between houseowner 

[247] 




■-^■■r 



LIFE OF JAPAN 



and tenant, or controversies arising under the ir- 
rigations and boundaries, or construction of a 
new building, making of the windows or dig- 
ging wells, or disputes over the payment of 
wages between employer and employee under 
contract of not more than one year, and also 
matters between the guest and the hotel, board- 
ing or lodging house, restaurant, or between 
the passengers and the transportation company, 
and between the shippers and the express com- 
pany. 

The jurisdiction of the District Court ex- 
tends to all cases involving the value of more 
than loo yen, and such other matters than 
those enumerated coming under the jurisdic- 
tion of the lower court. The District Court is 
composed of three judges — one presiding and 
the others associated. 

The Court of Appeals is the court where the 
appeal from the District Court is heard, and it 
is the court of last resort for appeals from 
the lowest court, or Precinct Court. However, 
all cases which involve the royal family shall 
be first instituted in this court. 

The Supreme Court hears the appeals or 

[248] 



..^^m 



JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 



W^: 



writs of error brought in from the Court of 
Appeals, and it is the highest court of the land. 

The Japanese courts are, generally speaking, 
much like the courts of chancery; the practice 
like chamber practice. The judges do not sum 
up the case nor deliver the legal opinion of the 
courts. They simply read the terms and 
orders of judgments. There are no such im- 
posing or exciting scenes in the Japanese courts 
as we have here in the courts of this country. 
The judges are appointed for life, either by 
the Emperor or by the Minister of Justice. The 
judges are appointed, not from among the 
most experienced lawyers, but from among 
the schools directly. In Japan the judges are 
judges, and the lawyers, lawyers — unlike the 
system in this country. The lawyers in Japan 
have no business to anticipate judges by keep- 
ing track of their fellow-members of the bar; 
they have no business to indorse or condemn 
judicial aspirants upon their merits ; they have 
no business to prevent objectionable candidates 
from attaining the bench, nor to work for the 
election of the best men. 

The Japanese have no jury nor did they ever 

^_ [249] 




M 



\\L 









■^h 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

have one. Judges make all inquiries into 
the truth, the reality, the actuality of all things. 
They inquire into the rules or standards. 
They determine the exact meaning and scope 
of laws and mode of their enactment, so there 
is no question left for the jury to determine. 

Sec 122. The Japanese Woman Under the 
Present Law: During the feudal ages, Con- 
fucianism and Buddhism placed the Japanese 
woman in a state of dependence. She then ob- 
served the triple obedience: "Obedience, while 
yet unmarried, to a father; obedience, when 
married, to a husband; obedience, when wid- 
owed, to a son." She was practically excluded 
from the enjoyment or exercise of almost all 
rights. She had not the right to become the head 
of a house ; she had not the right to hold prop- 
erty; she had not the right to make any con- 
tract ; she had not the right to act as a guardian. 

However, the introduction of the American 
and European civilization into Japan changed 
the entire fabric of the legal contemplation of 
thj Japanese woman. It has changed from the 
dependent state to that of independence. She 
can now become the head of a house; she has 

[250] 



JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW (^ 

the right to exercise parental authority over 
her own child; she" can enter into contracts, 
acquire or dispose of real or personal property 
in her own name; she can be a party to any 
legal proceeding whenever and wherever she 
sees fit to do so. Even after she is married, if 
she obtains permission from her husband, she 
can contract debts, acquire or relinquish mov- 
able or immovable properties; she can engage 
in business ; she can institute legal proceedings ; 
she can accept or renounce succession. Even 
if she did not obtain her husband's permission, 
her acts are not void but only voidable; and 
until or unless her husband applies himself to 
annul them, her acts are quite legal. In short, 
the Japanese woman's status has been promoted 
from an abnormally inferior position to one of 
equality of the sexes. As to the property 
of married women, the Japanese law-drafts- 
men leaped at one bound from the system of 
unity of conjugal property to the system of 
separate property. 

Sec. 123. Foreigners Under the Present 
Law: When we examine the jurisprudence of 
any country with reference to the position of 



[251] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

foreigners, we will find at once the four dis- 
tinct periods of progress from its primitive state 
up to the present period. 

1. The barbarous principle that all foreign- 
ers are enemies, so that they have absolutely 
no rights, 

2. By reason of commercial civilization, 
foreigners cannot be regarded as enemies, but 
from egoism or disdain they are placed in an 
inferior position. 

3. Giving the foreigners the enjoyment of 
their rights as much or less as their own people 
receive, or the principle of reciprocity. 

4. The principle of equality, which is the 
most advanced system of law relating to for- 
eigners, at the same time showing an unmis- 
tr.kable evidence of high civilization, irrespec- 
tive of race or nationality. 

The present written law of Japan is based 
upon the principle of equality, and the for- 
eigners in Japan enjoj equal rights. Even 
those foreigners whose countries are not in 
amicable relations with Japan, or those who are 
not citizens of any country with which Japan 
has a treaty, have equal rights with the citizens 

[252] 




EIGN OE LAW 

3(fibg=feEjeaty powers. Thus has the Japanese 
jurisprudence, not only been evolutionized 
from the stage of enmity to the principle of 
equality, but this has been done in a compara- 
tively short space of time, the accomplishment 
of which, in their own case, took even the most 
progressive nations of Europe many centuries. 

However, let me say that the gift of codes 
at this early stage of the Japanese progress is 
not the assurance of a great advantage to 
Japan. Every human institution, like man, 
must grope its way in the dark labyrinth of a 
mental and moral wilderness, struggling its 
way against arbitrary power. Arbitrary power 
is that power which is uncontrolled by reason 
and morality. It is not necessary to point out 
the precise location of arbitrary power in the 
Japanese government. It is just as obnoxious 
when wielded by the many as when it is wielded 
by one or by the few. It is just as obnoxious 
when it is exercised by the Diet as by.the E 
peror. fC 

There are no native sages of law in Japan 
such as Marshall, Miller, Waite, Chase, Field, 
Strong, Story, Bradley, Gray, Harlan, Brewer, 

[253] f/U 



CC 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

Fuller, Taney, Mathews, or judicial opinion 
from whom to ascertain the right mean- 
ing of the code. Nor has it as yet been 
possible for the Japanese to produce men of 
such original and creative power and character, 
by whom alone even the most perfect code can 
be successfully constructed and administered. 
I cannot say of my native country, as Tenny- 
son said of his mother country, whence Ameri- 
cans derived their law and their spirit of liberty, 
that it is a land 

"Where freedom broadens slowly down, 
From precedent to precedent." 

While power to improve the law is in the 
judges' hands, the Japanese look to the law 
draftsmen to cope with the needs of the pro- 
gressive society. The draftsmen of law, or 
the code committee, are ever ready to meet the 
rapidly changing national requirements. This 
practice seems to us debatable, for such legis- 
lation may raise expectations on the part of 
people. Does it foster a depedence upon the 
legislature for relief and protection from all the 
troubles of life? Is it destructive of self-help 
or individual incentive? We have yet to see 

[254] 



JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 

in the future whether the legislature can satisfy 
these expectations, or will break down under the 
weight of a burden which it is unable to carry. 
The author wishes to state that he has been 
unable to present the Japanese laws exhaus- 
tively, but if he has been able to "move the 
diligent student to doubt," and consequently to 
suggest to the American student the study of 
the Japanese laws and their reasons, he shall 
deem his efforts by no means without reward. 



"No government will be likely to endure unless all 
rights and controversies between individuals, between 
the Government and the individual, and between the 
majority and the minority, are settled by an absolutely 
independent and honest judiciary." — David J. Brewer. 



[255] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 



CHAPTER XIX 




"I would rather live in a country with riewS]^apers ,/; 
and without a government, than a country with gOyerr 
ment but without newspapers." — Jefferson. > ^"w^l 




Journalism in Japan 

Sec. 124. Beginning of the Japanese Journal- 
ism: The recent progress of Japan has been 
written or else spoken of by many Europeans 
and Americans, as well as by natives. Yet it 
is strange that there has never been even a 
pamphlet discussing the subject of journalism. 
It is indeed man's ingratitude that the most im- 
portant and vital part of Japanese progress has 
received the least notice. 

It is safe to say that all created things must 
have an origin, just as a primary rule of econ- 
omy is that one demands and another supplies 
that demand. Oriental or occidental, the ac- 
tivity of the human intellect must meet its re- 
quirements. Journalism in Japan is the crea- 

[256] 





ture of the present regime. In all the boasted 
history of prerestoration time we are unable 
to find any trace of journalism or that peculiar 
creature, to-wit: "Editor," according to Car- 
lile, the "ruler of the world." 

Sec. 125. The Japanese Characters and the 
Progress of Journalism: With the progress of 
civilization in Japan, the same wants, the same 
desires, the same hopes, the same aspirations 
that existed in this country were evolved 
there. Therefore, Japan imported from this 
country the idea, the ink, the press, and the 
paper ; but not the type. In the initial stage of 
publishing newspapers, the question of type 
obstructed the way of the enterprise. The ques- 
tion of type and the setting and making of forms 
will be the obstruction in the present and fu- 
ture, as they were in the beginning of journal- 
ism, for it is a question of the Japanese charac- 
ters. The written language of Japan is a mix- 
ture of Chinese characters and the Japanese 
alphabet, which latter consisted of forty-eight 
sounds. To write an original letter forty-eight 
kanas and about 1,000 Chinese characters may 
be sufficient for the purpose. But to a Japa- 





' 'jWm 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

nese newspaper, there must be at least 56,000 
Chinese characters. This enormous number 
of different kinds of type entail a great diffi- 
culty in keeping them separate, which is the 
most time-consuming proposition of the news- 
paper business. The type cases — each case be- 
ing about 20 by 15 inches — are along the walls 
of large rooms, extending from 25 to 30 feet, 
and the cases are put one upon the other, as high 
as the type-setter can reach. Thus the im- 
practicability of employing the linotype ma- 
chines which are used in this country is shown. 
It is strange that the printing and writing in 
Japan are to be thus placed, inconvenient, irk- 
some, and time-consuming; yet we cannot re- 
form the evil. Abrupt reform of this difficulty 
would kill the vitality of the people, for the 
written language lives with the life of the peo- 
ple. It takes many generations before some 
foreign language like English becomes an 
adopted language. It will also take a long time 
to Romanize the Japanese language, a thing 
which has been attempted without success. One 
consolation is that the spoken language or read- 
ing the Chinese characters, we read phonetically, 

[258] 



JOURNALISM IN JAPAN 

or understand by the sounds. This is the result 
of the constant effort of the generation past to 
elucidate the seeming inconvenience which Chi- 
nese idiographic characters carry with them. 

Sec. 126. Most Complicated System of the 
Typesetting: One, and perhaps the most ob- 
structing, thing in the way of Japanese jour- 
nalistic progress, is the use of Kana along- 
side the Chinese characters, in order to give 
the sound of the Chinese words. All Japa- 
nese are not Chinese scholars. There are 
some among the readers of the press who 
may not be able to comprehend the news when it 
is printed by Chinese characters only. It is 
necessary to place Kana, or the Japanese sound, 
of every Chinese character, side by side with 
the latter. 

Reporters in the American editorial rooms 
are able to use typewriters more or less. But 
owing to the complicated system of characters 
it is not only impossible to seek any application 
of the machine, but it is necessary to go 
through tedious processes. Recently an Ameri- 
can typewriter manufacturer attempted to solve 
the question by manufacturing the machine 

[259] 



BBm 






LIFE OF JAPAN 

which carries with it only Kanas. We believe 
that the manufacturer is or has been fully con- 
vinced that the Japanese character question is 
beyond the power of American invention and 
ingenuity. The Japanese editorial room pro- 
vides a blank form, corresponding with the size 
of the newspaper printed. The form is so ar- 
ranged that each character is to be written on a 
small cube or block. The columns extend across 
the paper horizontally, while the lines extend 
from the top to the bottom of the column which 
is read down the line; usually about fifteen or 
twenty-five characters complete a line. In writ- 
ing a copy you have many ways of abbreviating 
the words, such as D. D., for doctor of divinity, 
Rev. for reverend, D. C. L. for doctor of civil 
law. In Japan they have no abbreviations. All 
must be written in full; for example, "Matsu- 
daira vice-countess mistress," or "Kitashira- 
kawa princess her Imperial Highness." There 
is neither capital letter to begin the sentence, nor 
quotation marks for special designation or ver- 
batim. The Japanese sentences start without a 
capital, and verbatim is designated by brackets 
•or parentheses. 

[260] 



JOURNALISM IN JAPAN 



"A nose for news" or the "butt in" quality of 
a reporter in American newspaperdom may 
be one of the first attributes to his success. But 
in Japan these attributes cut the least figure. 
The letters of introduction and conventionali- 
ties or formalities constitute the first important 
requisites. In America a journalist may often 
be able to raise himself to eminence by training 
in the science and art of journalism, even with- 
out being born with inherent literary genius. 
In Japan they must know Chinese literature 
thoroughly, which often requires inborn genius. 
But at any rate the journalist must be a stu- 
dent of Chinese literature, otherwise there is 
no hope for success, no matter how much he 
trains himself in journalism as an art and 
science. 

♦ Sbc. 127. Woman Journalists in Japan: In 
this country we are able to write on the sub- 
ject of woman in journalism. It is said that the 
innate peculiarities of an American woman are 
apt to fit her for the position of journalist, for= 
she is naturally punctual, reliable, determined,; 
tireless, patient, above all, endowed with femi-^ 
nine sympathy which may have an exclusive 

i 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

field in some instances. It may be also said 
that work on the newspaper in America is like 
any other business, very respectable, so that 
women may realize their ambition if they feel 
this work to be their calling. Viewing prop- 
erly the advanced state of the American women 
we may safely assert that fitness for the 
work, and not sex, raises her to a pre- 
dominating place in the editorial offices. 
We regret to say that as yet the women of 
Japan have not to any great extent invaded the 
great field of journalism. 

But to-day the Japanese have all classes of 
newspapers, weeklies, monthlies, and quarter- 
lies. The press reaches almost every ham- 
let of the land. The press in Japan is an inte- 
gral part of the Japanese nation. The public 
servant and the private citizen alike are honored 
or condemned, as they are faithful or unfaith- 
ful to their responsible duties. The press once 
aroused, the incident of Shibuya Park or the 
case of the Yokahoma millionaire is a fair evi- 
dence that a wonderful influence would be 
exerted. Even the recent war with Rus- 
sia may be said to have been caused by the 

[262] 



JOURNALISM IN JAPAN 

voice of the journalists. It is true as Napoleon 
once said: "A journalist! That means a 
grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a re- 
gent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations! Four 
hostile newspapers are more to be dreaded than 
a hundred thousand bayonets!" 

Sec. 128. Individuality of Journalism: But 
we must keep in mind that there is such a 
difference in the individuality of journalism 
in Japan and this country. For instance, 
if American journalists, by their individual 
ideas, approve or disapprove of any man or wo- 
man's merit or intellectual and moral character 
or personality they will cause him or her to be 
the most praised or most humiliated one of the 
community. But Japanese journalists could not 
do the same. We have a constitution which 
guarantees the freedom of the press, and the 
censorship of the Japanese government over the 
press is not as strict as that of some Euro- 
pean nations. Yet there is but one Emperor in 
Japan. The Imperial Household law or a 
higher law of Japan provides that the Emperor 
or his counsellors are ©mnipotent, and it pro- 
hibits derogatory comment on whatever is 



[263] 




LIFE OF J^BAI^. 

-- ' 7 

done, or will be done, by them. And they are 
ruling Japan as the fountain head of justice. 
In this country every one of eighty million in- 
habitants is an emperor. When you feel funny, 
you laugh. And you want every emperor to 
laugh at what you think funny. Hence car- 
toons about your emperors. Here is the test. 
Our journalists with their Japanese individu- 
ality do not understand this strange privilege 
of being amused by or laughing at your em- 
perors. "As every one of these edged tools," 
says the draftsmen of the present Imperial Con- 
stitution, "can easily be misused, it is necessary 
for the maintenance of public order, to punish 
by law and to prevent by police measures dele- 
gated by law, any infringement by use thereof 
upon the honor or the rights of any individual, 
any disturbance of the peace of the country, or 
any instigation to crime." 

After all I wish to state that the press in 

Japan occupies an important position in public 

affairs, and I assert that there is no one thing 

at the present day in the Japanese nation to 

^which it is so much indebted for the good order 

Ipi society as the press. The Japanese news- 





papers exercise an overwhelming influence oyer 
the country and they are essential to the welfare 
of the Japanese people. Without newspapers , 
the Japanese people could not exist. Yet the 
time is a long way off before they will reach 
the state of journalism existing in America at 
the present time. The mere existence of jour- 
nalism is not a boon to Japan. We have in 
Japan no Franklin, no Raymond, no Gordon, no 
Bennett, no Greeley, no Webb, no Blair, no 
Weed, no Green, no Brooks, no Bryant. 

Slowly but surely every step for the better- 
ment of Japan is being bitterly fought. And in 
that betterment lies the progress of journalism in 
Japan. "The road winds up hill all the way." 
Step by step the way is won, 

"Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 
• Is our destined end or way; 

But to act, that each to-morrow 
Finds us further than to-day." 




LIFE OF JAPAN 



CHAPTER XX. 



The Pacific Ocean, its shores, its islands, and its ad- 
jacent territories will become the chief theatre of hu- 
man events and activities in the world's great here- 
after. — Wm. H. Seward. 



American-Japanese War. 

Sec. 129. What of Universal Peace? 
Substitution of arbitration in place of armed 
conflict is as old as history. And conflict of 
opinion as to the substitution of a court of law 
in place of the arbitrament of the sword is as 
old as the myths of the prehistoric periods. Yet 
this arbitration, as well as the conflict of 
opinion, exists to-day and will exist for ages 
to come until or unless we determine to put an 
end to the horror of war. Nothing is a human 
impossibility, is it? 

It is no news when we state that Thucydides 
convinced the Spartan king that it was wrong 

[266] 



Wi'< '#' 



AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 

to treat the wrong-doer as an enemy when the 
latter was willing to arbitrate, even in the ques- 
tion of Salamis, which was a life-or-death con- 
troversy involving the very existence of 
Athens. Plutarch gives us record that the im- 
mortal law-giver Solon left it to five Lacedae- 
monian arbitrators. An institution perhaps the 
earliest one within authentic history, viz., the 
Amphictyonic League, had for its aim the miti- 
gation of the horrors of war. The state whose 
champions were winners at the Olympic games 
was authorized as a prize to act as arbitrator. 
Then, too, in the middle ages, there was one 
supreme judge, arbitrator of right, the Pope. 
Kings and princes have often acquiesced in, 
but sometimes resisted his authority. For in- 
stance, when the Pope arbitrated the pretension 
of Edward II to the sovereignty of Scotland, 
the Scottish parliament said to the Pope : "You 
are to be held responsible to God for the loss of 
life, for as long as a hundred Scotchmen are left 
alive we will never be subject to the dominion of 
England." That the Pope was the recognized 
arbitrator during the middle ages of Christen- 
dom, there can be no doubt. But the instances 

[267] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

of failure were as many as those of success. It 
was the Pope who arbitrated the celebrated 
controversy and drew the line from one pole to 
the other, and by it divided the New World 
between Spain and Portugal. But it was this 
Pope of whom the King of France, Francis I, 
said: "What! The King of Spain and the 
King of Portugal quietly divide between them 
all America, without allowing me to take a 
share! I should like very much to see the 
Adam's will which gives them this vast inherit- 
ance." 

Grotius, the father of international law, in 
his treatise published in 1625, concentrated his 
argument for the arbitration process in place 
of the armed contest. So did Abbe de St. 
Pierre, at the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, who also proposed the scheme for re- 
organizing the Confederation Army of Eu- 
rope, to be used as a policeman's club to whip 
any nation which should disobey the order of 
the international court. This proposition soon 
found its advocates in Bentham, and, later, 
Kent. And most recently, even in the most 



[268] 





\&- 



AMERICAN- JAPANESE WAR 

autocratic of all sovereigns, the Russian Czar 
himself. 

Sec 130. Improvement of the Law of Na- 
tions: We believe, as everybody must believe, 
that when the curtain of the twentieth century 
is drawn, the law of nations, as a growing or- 
ganism, will have attained vast improvement. 
This improvement may be due either to the prac- 
tical influence of international congresses and 
conferences, or to awakened consciences, 
or to both these influences. And behind 
the scenes stand those tireless scholars, law- 
yers, and publicists, to whose incessant in- 
vestigations and exhaustive researches into pub- 
lic and private laws, the stability, comfort, and 
economy of the nations, such improvement is 
largely to be credited. And as they go on with 
this great work for the betterment of mankind 
these workers can have no better watchword 
than the famous charge of Andrew D. White, 
who said : "Heed not the clamor of zealots, or 
cynics, or pessimists, or pseudo-philosophers, or 
enthusiasts or fault-finders." 

No nation on earth has contributed real in- 
fluence toward the improvement of the law of 

[269] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

nations more than the United States, although 
other nations have as many tireless scholars, 
international lawyers and publicists as America 
has. The Americans characteristically hate 
and dread military power and they inbornly 
love peace. Since the peace of Westphalia, 
more than half of the international disputes 
that have been submitted and ended in arbitra- 
tion are cases of which the American was 
either on one side or the other of such dis- 
putes. Every movement of every nation to- 
ward the horrors of war is most zealously sup- 
ported and most enthusiastically advocated in 
America. The American educators are ever 
foremost in training the American youth in the 
high ideals of brotherhood of men and arbitra- 
tion principle, and in inculcating in them this 
profoundest spirit of American manhood. It 
may be instructive as well as of historical value 
here to quote some of the utterances of the 
famous educators of this country. "History of 
legal institutions and the development of 
methods of settling private disputes, ought to 
be opened to the student. The student who 
would not draw the desired inferences from 

[270] 



AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 



this line of study would not be worth telling 
categorically that universal peace between na- 
tions is a certainty of the future and not an 
iridescent dream," declares Prof. Joseph H. 
Beale, Jr., of Harvard. "War is a hideous 
evil; under no circumstances is it to be en- 
couraged," insists President Bryan, of Indiana. 
"The American college and university student 
does not need to know," joins Prof. W. W. 
Willoughby, of John Hopkins, "that m very 
many cases at least, it is an unnecessary evil. 
To this end college and university instructors 
in political science should agree to present these 
facts to their classes." "There is a second 
service," rejoins President Reese, of Rochester, 
"which our college instruction ought to render 
to the community, namely, a closer develop- 
ment and stronger rooting in the minds of 
students of the sense of justice." "The method 
of arbitration would seem to be merely the 
method of compromise through the agency of 
a third party, but essentially it is more than 
this," adds Prof. Elmer E. Brown, the United 
States Commissioner of Education, "for every 
well-conducted international arbitration con- 



[271] 



\ 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

tributed to the building up of a higher concep- 
tion of international obligation of world rela- 
tions, and is accordingly in its effect the bring- 
ing of the disputants together on higher and 
more stable ground than either of them oc- 
cupied when the strife began. It seems clear 
that this is the very type of thinking which is 
characteristic of modern education at the best. 
It is the type of thinking which should be pro- 
moted in schools of every grade, in the interest 
of liberal culture rightly understood. It is 
by promoting such culture and establishing 
such modes of thought among our people 
everywhere that the public schools can lay the 
surest foundation for the arbitration principle." 
These utterances represent only a few ex- 
amples of the American educators training the 
American youth. Although the figures of 
speech may be more or less differently ex- 
pressed, in fact all prominent educators of the 
prominent colleges and universities, such as 
Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Indiana, John Hop- 
kins, Boston, Syracuse, Virginia, New York 
City, Chicago, Princeton, Pennsylvania, West- 
ern Reserve, Earlham, Northwestern, Lehigh, 

[272] 



AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 

Wisconsin, Cornell, Georgetown, Catholic, 
Dartmouth, Brown, Ohio, Cincinnati, Illinois, 
Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Vanderbilt, Ten- 
nessee, California, Missouri, Mississippi, Stan- 
ford, and Maryland, all agree and zealously 
and enthusiastically foster the spirit of arbi- 
tration and establish those modes of thought 
that dispose American men to arbitrate their 
differences. A last and no less important utter- 
ance in the improvement of the law of nations 
must be added here. Prof. James B. Scott, of 
Columbia, when the legal nature of interna- 
tional law had been seriously questioned and 
denied by some continental jurists, and by the 
analytical school of English jurisprudence, 
said : "If we point to The Hague as a partial 
refutation of the objection, the immediate and 
triumphant reply is that the international 
sheriff is lacking or powerless to execute the 
judgment, and necessarily so, for is not the law 
of nations based upon the equality of states? 
It is evident, therefore, that neither superior 
nor inferior can exist. There is doubtless much 
in this criticism, but in fact as well as in theory 
international law does exist and is accepted, 

[273] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 



jy 




applied and observed in its entirety by all civi- 
lized nations in their constant and common 
intercourse. We may readily admit that force 
may be necessary to cause the observance of 
municipal law, but if we find international 
law observed as a whole, we must presume 
that a sanction lies back of it, whether it be 
physical or moral force, or the force of public 
opinion. The compelling force is, in any case, 
a sufficient and satisfactory sanction/' 

Sec. 131. Cowardice of the Civilised World: 
Yet, it is a fact too well known, says the civilized 
world, that disarmament at the present time 
seems impossible. Sometimes it is argued that 
the maintenance of the army and the navy to 
be used as the policeman's club, as was advocated 
by Abbe de St. Pierre about two centuries ago, 
would further its effectiveness if the courts of 
arbitration were installed instead of the court 
of the sword. 

The civilized nations of the world realize 
the truth of the theory that the relation between 
nation and nation is like the relation between 
man and man. If this theory counts for any- 
thing, then the present world bears upon its 



[274] 




AMERICAN- JAPANESE WAR 

face the unmistakable mark of cowardice ! And 
civilization, mockery! The ideal of our life 
is not whipping. Then why must we advocate 
the bearing of arms? We have reason to be- 
lieve in the ascension of the human race. Al- 
though we are far from angels, the wings of 
an angel are the symbol of our characteristic as- 
cendancy. God of Christianity, God of Shin- 
toism, or God of Buddhism — whichever name 
the readers may please — God must be or ought 
to be the highest ideal of our imagination. 
Franklin once accused our brothers of cow- 
ardice: "We make daily great improve- 
ments in natural, there is one I wish to 
see in moral, philosophy, the discovery of a plan 
which will induce and oblige nations to settle 
their disputes without first cutting one an- 
other's throats." And to-day the sons of the 
cowards still rule the nations. Sometimes it 
seems that hereditary cowardice is producing 
a thousand-fold. The so-called civilized pow- 
ers of the world fear their own shadow, their 
own nation and their own race, and they, with- 
out hesitation, it appears to us, are "beating 
the funeral march" to "hell." 

[275] 






LIFE OF JAPAN 

In the case of Japan the cowardice of the 
civilized world is proved. When Japan asked 
the nations' recognition of her legal autonomy, 
because she could take care of her own internal 
affairs, because she believed that she excels 
in art, literature and the grace of social life, 
and because she is inherently entitled to this 
national right, the nations repeatedly denied 
this recognition and charged Japan with bar- 
barism and her people as being semi-civilized 
people. Only after Japan killed more men in 
her war with China in 1894-5 than were killed 
in the American civil war and the Napolaenic 
war of Waterloo put together did, the civilized 
nations recognized Japan's legal automony. 
Even after that the present day humanity in- 
dulged the religious and racial prejudice 
against Japan. It was only after Japan in her 
war with Russia proved that she could kill 
more men in one land battle than in all the 
land battles of the Crimean war of the English 
and French, that Japan could send to the bot- 
tom more ships and seamen in one naval battle 
than in all the battles in Nelson's Trafalgar 
and Dewey's Manila Bay that the civilized 



[276] 



AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 



world received Japan as a first-class civilized 
power and her people as a civilized people. 

It was this mock civilization, this warlike 
humanity that forced and is now forcing the 
Japanese to expand their army and navy as 
far and sometimes farther than their national 
economy can reach. Japan is by no means a 
warlike nation. The fact that she has for cen- 
turies secluded herself and refrained from in- 
terfering with any Western powers, the fact 
that she supplicated the rest of the world to 
let her alone, amply proves her peaceful indi- 
viduality and propensity. If Japan ever be 
prepared to strike any nation, if Japan ever be 
skilled in science and art of war, it is not be- 
cause Japan is a warlike nation, but because 
she has to carry out the mandate of the civi- 
lized world. The cowardice of the world must 
answer and not Japan before the jury of twelve 
Apostles under the Mosaic Law. 

We are certainly in need of more scholars; 
more lawyers, and more publicists in order to 
bring about a complete transition from the 
reign of arms to the reign of law. We repeat 
again that we are in need of more Zorns, more 





LIFE OF JAPAN 

Haltzendorffs, more Calvos, more Bradier-Fo- 
deres, more Hollands, more Paimcefotes, Halls, 
Phillimeres, Bryces, Woolseys, Lawrences, Ari- 
gas, Okumas, Itos, Hayashis, Komuras, Wheat- 
ons, Choates, Whites, Davises, Snows, Hayes, 
Olneys, Foster, Strauses, Metcalfs, Carnegies, 
Bartholdts, Taylors, Roots, Tafts, Roosevelts, 
and such men as the Justices of the U. S. Su- 
preme Court. 

Sec. 132. Military Expansion of the United 
States and Japan: It seems paradoxical, yet it 
is no less true, that the honest expression of 
Bacon : "Wars are suits of appeal to the tri- 
bunal of God's justice, where there are no 
superiors on earth to determine," — survives. 
So would also survive the strong language 
of Von Moltke : "War is an element of 
universal order established by God. The 
noblest virtues are developed by it — courage 
and abnegation ; duty faithfully accomplished, 
and a spirit of sacrifice engendered. Without 
war the world would soon fall into the most 
sordid materiahsm." The United States and 
Japan, are very strange. They have drawn 
from their industries the huge sum of nearly 

[278] 



AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 

$1,500,000,000 as their part of the $10,000,- 
000,000 which, during the last ten years, rep- 
resents the amount which has been expended 
by the world in war or in preparation for war. 
The United States, according to the interna- 
tional naval table, stands higher than Japan: 
First, Great Britain; second, France; third, 
Germany and the United States ; fourth, Japan. 
Higher in the maritime table, greater in na- 
tional resources, larger in population, wealthier 
in treasury, the United States is without ad- 
vocates of expansion of military strength. "The 
greater and more efficient the American navy 
is, the safer and more prosperous is the Ameri- 
can national and international trade, for mili- 
tary strength and peace are co-ordinate and co- 
extensive," are the watchwords of the Ameri- 
can capital ! Such is also true in the Japanese 
capital. The giant Satsuma has been launched 
recently at Yokosuka, where the new armored 
cruiser Kurama is nearly completed, and five 
Russian prizes are also being repaired. At 
Kure the battleship Aki has just been 
launched and the new armored cruisers Ibuki 
and Ikoma will soon be completed, while the 

[279] 







m 



LIFE OF JAPAN 



repairing of the newly refloated twelve battle- 
ships captured from Russia is now completed. 
Besides the battleships, five cruisers have 
been ordered to be built in foreign countries, ac- 
cording to the naval expansion programme of 
1903. "There is no idea of augmenting the 
naval expansion," says the Japanese present ad- 
ministration in answer to the question put by 
the opposition party in the Imperial Diet, "but 
we have to keep pace with the civilized coun- 
tries of the West." To this the present im- 
perial cabinet also adds with regard to the army 
expansion : "The completion of the Japanese 
army is in no sense an aggressive preparation, 
but is solely a guarantee of the world's peace. 
A military force cannot be created in a day, 
but without an army a country's prestige and 
safety cannot be insured." 

Thus the United States and Japan actually 
face each other, fully armed and prepared for 
the maintenance of the world's peace. 

Sec. 133. Japan and the United States in 
Their Relation to San Francisco: To begin 
with, let us understand, and let all the world 
understand, that the Americans are and must 

[280] 






AMERICAN- JAPANESE WAR 

be the most peace-loving people on earth. Love 
of peace in the American people is inherent, al- 
though we are aware of their utterances, ''let 
us have war with Japan," in connection with 
the trivial local industrial controversies, such 
as boycotts of the Japanese restaurants or seg- 
regation of the Japanese children from the pub- 
lic schools at San Francisco. Such utterances 
are attributable to a mere passing intoxication. 
His profoundest being is love of peace, no 
matter how viciously an American may con- 
duct himself, or how blindly he may be wrapped 
up in a mistaken understanding of self-preser- 
vation principle. 

The Japanese, too, are the people of quiet, 
peace, and self-respect. The industrial or ra- 
cial conflict in America is as old as pre-inde- 
pendence periods of the United States, and as 
extensive as the growth or progress of the 
American people. Therefore, it is not at all 
news of interest to know the existence of boy- 
cott or industrial or racial differences in refer- 
ence to the Japanese colonies in San Francisco. 
The United States has for the backbone of the 
national ^1:0 wth, the conglomeration of poten- 

I281] 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

tially local city commonwealths as many and 
different as the conglomeration of races — Ger- 
mans, French, Italians, Russians, and all other 
races or nationalities. Here they come from 
across the ocean, they with their distinct cus- 
toms and languages; their wives and children; 
here they start industrial or racial strifes or at 
least elements of strife for race against race, 
city against city, state against state. The racial 
or industrial conflicts in America are too nu- 
merous to write down, and their nature too 
appalling to describe. It may seem paradoxic- 
ally, yet it is true, that the American civiliza- 
tion is formed in these innumerable appalling 
conditions, namely : racial and industrial con- 
troversies. 

It is a primary principle for the success of 
colonization, that it avoid the interference of 
home government, and cultivate individual ini- 
tiative, patience, and become assimilated into 
the territory to which such colony has come; 
especially so when such territory is already 
colonized and has a government of its own. 
Suppose, for instance, if ten thousand Ameri- 
cans went over to Tokyo, London, Berlin, or 

[282] 



AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 




Paris, and commenced to establish their right 
as laborers, they would surely have to en- 
counter industrial and racial conflicts. Sup- 
pose, further, if the American government in- 
tended to help its citizens and settle such racial 
or industrial warfares with the international 
coercion dependent only upon the sharp point 
of bayonet, it would surely expose unreason- 
ableness on the part of the American Govern- 
ment before the fair-minded world. Suppose, 
still further, if the Americans make the treaty 
concerning laborers which might be even as 
long as from the south to the northpole, it 
would not and could not change human minds. 
The American, as a powerful nation, may op- 
press by might, but at the same instance, it en- 
rages the conscience of the civilized world and 
sins against Heaven. 

Civilization of the present century rides on 
the reign of law. Should any radical or indus- 
trial conflict or strife reach to the extent so as 
to injure life, liberty, property, or pursuit of 
happiness, the resort must be had in the Court 
of Justice which has competent jurisdiction 
over the point in issue. Fortunately, the Jap- 




[283] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

anese colonies in this country have splendid 
courts composed of splendid judges. No nation 
on earth has such independent courts as we 
have in America. From the time of Marshall to 
Fuller the people within and without, looked 
upon the American Courts as the only friends 
of aliens or the weak, and in the greater meas- 
ure, the triumphs of the American system of 
government are due to them. 

The Supreme Court of the United States, as 
early as 1804, rendered a decision that even 
"Act of Congress ought never to be construed 
to violate the law of nations." It is not neces- 
sary to seek far for innumerable instances 
where the court protected the unprotected par- 
ties. Often the Presidents of the United 
States were powerless in adjusting a labor con- 
flict, boycotts, or interferences of business 
rights among the Americans and appealed to 
the courts for protection. For instance, in the 
famous Chicago strike of 1896, President 
Cleveland appealed to the Circuit Court of the 
United States for the district of Illinois, which 
court issued injunctions and subsequently sent 
the President of the Labor Union and his three 

[284] 



AMERICAN- JAPANESE WAR 

associates into custody of the law. The apph- 
cation to the Supreme Court by the writ of 
habeas corpus was denied and the prisoners re- 
manded to custody. President Cleveland, in 
reference to this case, rightly observed : "The 
Supreme Court of the United States has writ- 
ten the closing words of this history, tragical 
in many of its details, and in every line pro- 
voking sober reflection." 

In the same year when the Chicago industrial 
controversies were going on there was another 
famous labor conflict in Cincinnati, where the 
Labor Union was instigating conspiracies and 
controlling the boycotts. Then again resort 
was had to the Circuit Court of the United 
States of Ohio. Judge Taft,— that William H. 
Taft, whose name is so familiar to the Japanese 
populace and to whom so much admiration is 
given by the Japanese, — was presiding over 
the court. In pronouncing the sentence of im- 
prisonment against the Labor Union leader, 
Judge Taft said : "After much consideration, 
I do not think I should be doing my duty as a 
judicial officer of the United States without im- 
posing on the contemner the penalty of impris- 

[285] 





LIFE OF JAPAN 





onment. The sentence of the court is that the 
contemner be confined in the county jail of 
Warren County, Ohio, for a term of six 
months. The m.arshal will take the prisoner 
into custody and safely convey him to the place 
of imprisonment." And as late as 1906 the 
Circuit Court of the United States, Indiana, 
has rendered such an imposing decision in be- 
half of the public against the boycott instiga- 
tors that the Court is most dear to us Japa- 
nese. In this connection the reader's attention, 
especially if he is an alien, is called to a decision 
of the United States Supreme Court which ut- 
tered the most sweeping language in the in- 
terest of the peace of the country as well as of 
the world, when it said : "International law is 
part of our law and must be ascertained and ad- 
ministered by the court of justice of appropri- 
ate jurisdiction as often as question of right 
depending upon it are duly presented for their 
determination." 

So-called anti-Japanese movement in San 
Francisco, after all, shall never be the cause for 
Japanese-American war. It is far from it. In- 
racial conflict in San Francisco is 

[286] 







AMEyilGM^-JAPAN-ESr MTAR 



trivial in quantity when comparing any such 
experience with those other races or national- 
ities have had. It is insignificant in the scope 
of the interests involved, for the thinking people 
of the single city together with all the rest of 
the state of California are more sympathetic 
toward the Japanese than the antagonistics. So 
are also the entire Pacific States. East of the 
Rockies is filled with the friends of the Jap- 
anese, who love to see the Japanese prosperity 
and progress. Should Japanese in San Fran- 
cisco hope, as a colony, to be successful in this 
country like the other races or nationalities, 
they have yet to see their tracks covered with 
the bones of martyrs who have perished in the 
struggle, by stone, by fire. If the Japanese ex- 
pect success in colonization they must say as 
their predecessors said : 

"It is weary watching wave by wave, 

And yet the tide heaves onward ; 

We climb like corals, grave by grave, 

And pave a pathway sunward." 

If, unfortunately, the Japanese, either by 
racial prejudice or industrial consideration, are 
.to,be4a9ted or discriminated against, there are 

[287] 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

other means for adjustment; and those means 
are illustrated by the Americans themselves in 
Japan. Did not the Japanese at one time, in 
obedience to anti-foreign sentiment, commit 
outrages on the American residents in Japan? 
Did not the Japanese Romines assassinate the 
American diplomatic agent in the street of 
Yedo ? Did not the Japanese roughs and hood- 
lums set fire to the American Legation? Did 
not the Japanese, animated by race prejudice, 
commit violence unimaginable, resulting in 
driving all the Americans and Europeans out 
of the city of Yedo? It was only the great 
benevolence, patience, and self-sacrificing en- 
thusiasm of the Americans that not only saved 
Japan from the international rupture with the 
European powers, but also impelled Japan to 
march from the state of insignificance to the 
forefront of the modern nations. Is it not then 
about time to begin the returning of favors and 
discharge giri or "rectitude" ; instead of the 
diplomatic protest or complaint or needlessly 
fermenting a spirit of hatred of call for war 
against the United States, the benefactor of 
Japan? The latter are indeed crimes against 

[288] 




AMERICAN-JAPANESE WA 

the teaching of rectitude and virtue^lM"were 
deeply implanted by the Japanese ancestors. 

Sec 134. Commercial War Between Japan 
and the United States: A war that exists at 
present and will exist in future between the two 
nations is the war for commercial supremacy. 
It is interesting to watch the warring strate- 
gies of the two countries : On the one side, the 
Japanese government having a partnership in- 
terest in the manufacture and export of iron, 
beer, sugar, tobacco, cotton goods, and the 
milling, oil refining and mining industries ; sub- 
scribing for shares of stock in shipbuilding 
and locomotive works and iron foundries ; sub- 
sidizing the steamship lines that touch the in- 
sular possessions as well as the foreign ports, 
and owning and operating the railway, telegraph 
and telephone lines; and on the other, the 
American citizen under the American govern- 
mental statutory limitations — plainly speaking, 
the Japanese imperial government trust and the 
American democratic anti-trust. 

This phenomenal difference in the two na- 
tional economic conditions will undoubtedly at- 
tract the attention of the reader. But an inves- 

[289] 






tigation into the objective or individualistic pro- 
gress of the American, and the subjective or 
passive progress of the Japanese, will at once 
reveal the reason for that difference. The read- 
er is already aware that the Japan of to-day- 
is the evidence of evolution from the pre- 
American expedition period, in which the 
hereditary castes, never conceiving the idea 
of a social condition different from their 
own, and entertaining no expectation of 
ever ranking equally with one another, ac- 
cepted benefits from such difference without dis- 
cussing their right, and submitted to their chiefs 
without resistance, practically assuming author- 
ity to be providential. In this Japanese national 
evolution the reader will also take notice of the 
fact that the divisions which severed the people 
into castes are now lowered; property is di- 
vided ; the light of intelligence spreads ; the ca- 
pacities of all classes are equally cultivated ; the 
respect for the law, of which they are the com- 
mon author, is strong; and their self-sacrificing 
spirit is now not the result of blind ignorance, 
fetishism, tradition, but is the result of a well- 
studied philosophy which has been found ap- 

[290] 




AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 

plicable to their conditions, and which appeals 
to the intelligence of the mass to the extent thatj 
it is adopted as the ideal working plan througl 
which the people expect to attain the highest na 
tional development. 

Against this Japanese conception, which they^ 
believe will be most effective and most success- 
ful in the interpref ectural and international com- 
mercial warfare, stands the American peoplC; 
whose equality of condition has reached the 
extreme, as its government was founded on a 
most ancient, a most uniform and a most per- 
manent system of Anglo-Saxon race. Subjec- 
tive progress vs. Objective progress, — Japan 
and America — : both peoples, in cases of na- 
tional upheaval, proved and will prove the 
strongest types of communalists, yet they draw 
their undercurrent of development from radic- 
ally different fountains of the philosophy of 
government. 

-j^ensequently we observe a remarkable result- 




ST" " ^^'f Fotti these individual characteristics of the two^^ 

peoples, or the backbone and vitality of the com-g ^ 

mercial progress of the nations — that the^ ^ 

4 American citizen has for his incentive the hoperQ K 

± ^ ^* 



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J'l 



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fa Mm gfj'i 13 ic ^^ X /^i^ nrnz ^':^ m'-m ->• f d 

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1^ \ (^ n mtm^if t ^ y nsXc^ ^t ■*> 5 -< ^ 5 ^ 2 

isk \t m& m h ^ % f^ ti s"*ri 3- ft "J jh. # -c 



LIFE OF JAPAN 

of gain and profit for his individual effort, 
while the Japanese citizen, imbued with the 
self-sacrificing spirit or self-denying patriotism 
for the gain and profit of the Emperor, 
is ready to sacrifice all effort. Here the two 
peoples have peculiarly yet distinctly antago- 
nistic enthusiasm. 

Sec. 135. Causes that are Against Japanese- 
American War: As to the Japano- American 
war in arms, there is not a sign of it at present. 
There are ten reasons which if fostered assure 
its impossibility. 

First, because the international positions of 
Japan and the United States in their inter- 
dependent relations with the civilized powers 
of the world, act as checks against such a 
gigantic conflict — a conflict greater than the 
late Russo-Japanese war — which not only 
would deteriorate the economic conditions of 
the world, but also ignore the international 
consciousness for humanity and civilization. 

Second, because even when the policy of na- 
tions of the world would have been to turn the 
table for Japan and the United States to prac- 
tice the game of war, the two nations are too 

[292] 



AMERICAN- JAPANESE WAR 

deeply interested in the commercial field in 
Asia — one nation sends raw materials and the 
other manufactures them — vice versa; and the 
facts that Japan and the United States enjoy 
the rich harvest now, and the facts that for the 
two nations there are greater possibilities in the 
future as the result of the astute diplomacy, 
patience and patriotism of over a half century. 
Would the two nations so abruptly abandon 
their cherished hope of so rich a harvest to be 
reaped after years of struggle and activity 
in order to cut each other's throats? Would 
Japan and the United States wait, only 
to see other nations, such as Germany, France 
or Russia, usurp the fruits of their efforts of 
over a half-century ? The two nations are cer- 
tainly not so nonsensical as to tolerate such diplo- 
macy. 

Third, because Japan and the United States 
are sensitive, positive and proud nations. The 
statement which has recently been made, and 
which has been widely circulated in both coun- 
tries, that the United States has been converted 
from a belief in the Bible to that in com- 
merce and the sword, is, generally speaking, 

[293] 




LIFE OF JAPAN _ 

quite incorrect. ' J^tid if H' also absurdlyTncOT^^^— "" 
rect to state that Japan, after her signal vic- 
tories in war with China and Russia, is enter- 
taining a "swell head." On the contrary, the 
two nations hear more and more plainly theg^ 
throbbing of humanity, and they observe movQ^ri^fj 
and more distinctly the guide-posts on the foot- 
path to peace between them. 

Fourth, because the people of the two coun- 
tries begin to study each other more seriously. 
There was a time in the United States when the 
scope of the study of Japanese affairs was 
limited to such silly indulgence as hearing of 
lectures on Rikishia-men, Sedan or Palakeens, 
tea houses, gardens, bamboo houses. Geisha 
girls, or other trivial things, or the read- 
ing or writing of love stories and similar 
superfluous things. To-day they are realizing 
the importance of learning the civilization of 
Japan. Nations, like individuals, says the 
United States, can never become real friends 
until or unless they know each other intellec- 
tually and iHtelligently. 

Fifth, because of that wonderful human 
document, the Anglo-Japanese alliance treaty of 

c 





AMERIC 



1905, which, while lasting for ten years, also 
provides that, "If either contractor be involved 
in war the other contractor shall at once come 
to the assistance of its ally, and both parties 
will conduct war in common and make peace 
in mutual agreement with any power or powers 
involved in such war." Therefore the Anglo- 
Japanese treaty causes the United States either 
to form some alliance with a European nation, 
which is repugnant to the time-honored tradi- 
tion and policy, or she must fight against Eng- 
land on the Atlantic and Japan on the Pacific. 
Sixth, because the relation between the in- 
dividual Japanese and American is too close — 
a relation that will not and could not entertain 
anything else than peace. This friendly relation 
does not rest upon formal document, nor is it an 
official and diplomatic sort of friendship. It 
is still better and far deeper than them all. It 
is called Giri. Girt is the great reverence that 
the Japanese feel for their teachers. Never 
for one moment will the Japanese forget Giri, 
or the kindness of America in educating the 
Js:panese, and to strictly observe the Giri — the 
/relation between teacher and disciple — is and 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

ever has been an essential quality of the Japa- 
nese individuality. 

Seventh, because the two peoples having in- 
tellectually understood the special civilization 
of each other, and having widely awakened to 
their individual conscientiousness, they will 
exercise morally responsible action and speech. 
They will become more and more unselfish 
and impartial ; they will avoid egotism and self- 
conceit; they will refrain from indulging in 
imputations of inferiority and abuse; they will 
condemn the insult, disdain and discourtesy; 
and they will maintain broadened views and 
higher standards of individual responsibihty 
to the general good of the two great nations. 

Eighth, because the people of the two coun- 
tries have realized that while the international 
relations between Japan and the United States 
have hitherto been dependent on and resulted 
from each other's chivalry, benevolence, ro- 
mance, enthusiasm, sentiment, emotion and re- 
ligion, at present and in the future, it must of 
necessity be dependent upon other profound 
qualities besides those, namely: self-respect, 
self-preservation, and mutual respect as the most 

[296] 



AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 

essential factors to a prosperous and lasting 
Peace. 

Ninth, because the two distinct peoples 
fully realize that individual material comfort 
and national material development is not the 
end of human society or human government. 
On the contrary such a material comfort or de- 
velopment ever has been the cause of individual 
and national ruin. The more material com- 
fort, the more material development, the heav- 
ier becomes the corresponding duty that such 
material development be translated into moral 
effort and achievement. Idle ease, foolish good 
nature or weak peace, which are twin results of 
individual material comfort and national ma- 
terial development, have also to be rooted out. 

Tenth, and lastly, because the governments of 
the two nations are and must be conscious that 
it is not the government officials alone that are 
entitled to the credit for progress and prosperity 
and international peace, as has been hitherto 
claimed by the Japanese officials, but it is the 
common mass of the people that the govern- 
ment stands upon, the great source of human 
progress, and it must sink or swim with them. 

[297] 





Hence the American Government in transacting 
business with Japan should first ascertain the 
wishes of the Japanese people. Special empha- 
sis to the same principle should be given by the 
Japanese government, so that in dealing with 
the United States it may remember that the 
latter is a government of the people, for the 
people and by the people in the strictest sense 
of the term. 

The Japanese, after their war with the Rus- 
sians, have to write their history of individual 
and national development by electricity. Every 
action and speech made by the American peo- 
ple relative to the Japanese is recorded in 
Japan through wires and wireless. Like or dis- 
like, friendly or unfriendly manner, sympathy or 
discord, insult or courtesy, all are instantane- 
ously transmitted through the columns of the 
press, and their messages flashing over 
countless wires or wirei^ss posts are made 
known in Japan — multitude calls to multitude, 
Jljiiand no peasant can escape from participating 
in moulding the destiny, no matter in how ob- 
scure a hamlet he may be found. Do they con- 
tinue to assemble with tears of gratitude and 

[298] 






AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 

ir^mltifikful heart over the reVfereh" AfflETficai 
people? or will the wind of wrong be sown, and 
the whirlwind of sullen and revengeful hatred 
be reaped ? 

Ssc. 136. Prophetic Future: It is difficult 
for us to predict what will be the future condi- 
tions of the two nations, or to prophesy even 
what forms of government might in the future 
be adopted. Yet, it may be safely asserted that 
the people of Japan and the United States are 
ever ready to respond to the call of humanity 
or "jin-gi." During the Japanese-Russian 
War America said to Japan in the name of 
humanity, "Let there be peace." Hence the 
conclusion of peace at Portsmouth. This ap- 
peal for humanity was potent with the brave 
Japanese soldiers on Manchuria's battle line, 
and the swords and bayonets so bravely and 
skillfully wielded, fell on the ground and they 
could not raise them again. 

For the matchless progress of enlightened 
rule during the last half century the world is 
indebted to the United States and Japan. 
Parent and child, though separated by a mighty 
ocean and apparently conflicting emotions, have 



:'^ -' ' 




LIFE OF JAPAN 

been co-workers in the great cause of perfect- 
ing and strengthening Hberal government, and 
thereby they "builded wiser than they knew." 
Did we not in the past sound a depth in the 
decHne of our progress that the present age 
can never reach? "The babbhng echo mocks 
itself !" How glorious would it be if some day 
we may be fortunate enough to establish a 
Congress of the United States of Japan and 
America, which shall deal with the questions 
of commerce, of war and of peace between us 
and the rest of the world. How grand would 
it be if some day we may be civilized enough 
to make out of Japan and America monitors 
for the peace of the world. Although we can 
safely predict that before the grand and glori- 
ous idea be realized we will have many sea- 
sons of war and peace, prosperity and famine ! 
Let the people of Japan and the United 
States work shoulder to shoulder in an un- 
selfish interest for human liberty and pro- 
gress — the eternal principles of justice and 
philanthropy — recognizing the rights of all ac- 
cording to the highest ideals of Christianity 
and ideals of the two nations. May the Stars 

[300] 




CAN- JAPANESE WAR 



and Stripes and the Banners of the Rising Sun 
float side by side in mutual endearment, em- 
blems of peace and prosperity, justice, and the 
greatest amount of true liberty to mankind. 




[301] 



THE VIEWS AND REVIEWS 

OF THE 

Leading Daily Papers and Journals 
of the United States 

FOR 

DR. MIYAKAWA'S 

"POWERS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE" 

(Arranged by date) 



The Baltimore American. 

March ii, 1907. Baltimore, Md. 

Interest in this book is assured from the fact that it is the 
production of a Japanese, and one who enjoys the exceptional 
distinction of being the first Japanese admitted to the American 
bar. . . . The American system of government has called 
forth the interpretative opinions of foreigners who have ren- 
dered with remarkable fidelity the American scheme. Such have 
been James Bryce, the author of "The American Commonwealth," 
and Professor Munsterberg, the author of . "The Americans." 
The work of the present author . . has the unique interest 
of being an oriental point of view. . . . The titles of some 
of the chapters will serve as an index to the work : "The 
People of the United States," "The English People," "The Japa- 
nese People," "The Sovereignty of the United States," "The 



Distribution of Public Functions," "The Legislature of the 
United States." 

Under these and similar captions are discussed the source 
and character of sovereignty and the delegated powers and 
method of exercising them that obtains. As indication of per- 
spicuous comment may be taken the following with reference to 
congressmen: "Whatever hopes or projects may be entertained 
by a few aspiring candidates, it must generally happen that a 
great proportion of the men deriving their advancement from 
their influence with the people would have more to hope from 
the preservation of their favor than from innovation in the 
government subversive to the authority of the people." 

Speaking of the functions of the chief executive the writer 
says : "Nationally, as well as individually, the American char- 
acteristics ever have been and ever will be very peculiar, in that 
they resist encroachment of every kind. Ambition of one sepa- 
rate and distinct government counteracts ambitions of another." 
In discussing the Constitution and the courts, as well as the 
particular activities of the legislative branches of the govern- 
ment, the author does so with a wealth of citation of cases passed 
upon by the Supreme Court that formed the test cases under 
which the Constitution and the political princij les of the country 
developed. 

The work is, therefore, from every point of view, valuable alike 
to the legislator, the student and the man who wants to know 
the practical workings of the government and the history and 
spirit of those activities. 



The New York World. 

March i6, 1907. Nezv York City, N. Y. 

We have had from De Tocqueville the French view of our 
democracy, from Bryce the English and from Munsterberg the 
German. The Japanese understanding is expressed in a volume 



of current publication, "Powers of the American People, Con- 
gress, President and Courts," by Masuji Miyakawa. 

He presents 

passages of original comment, however, sufficient to give his 
book a strong individual interest. At the beginning he makes 
these instructive distinctions: 

"The word the 'people' of the United States in its proper 
legal acceptation means the whole mass of male and female 
citizens constituting the political unit. It is identified as the 
political entity and artificial person, and not a majority of the 
individuals composing society and those persons who have the 
right to vote." . . . 

To emphasize a point of difference between our Congress 
and the Japanese Diet this author reminds his readers that 
the Diet has no share in the sovereign power— that it has 
power to deliberate upon laws, but not to determine them. 
"All the different legislative powers are fundamentally and 
practically vested in the Most Exalted Personage, His Majesty, 
the Emperor of Japan, the Creator of the Imperial Constitution, 
the source and fountainhead of all political life of great Japan 
herself." 

Mr. Miyakawa is inclined to be idealistic as regards the men 
who make up the membership of our Congress. Since they are 
distinguished by the preference of their fellow-citizens it is to 
be presumed in general that "they will be somewhat distinguished 
also by those qualities which entitle them to it. Secondly, 
"they will enter into the public service under circumstances 
which cannot fail to produce a temporary feeling of affection at 
least to their constituents." "In the third place, those ties which 
bind the representative to his constituents are strengthened by 
motives of a more selfish nature. His pride and vanity attach 
him a share in its honors and distinctions." A fourth considera- 
tion is that of frequent elections and the representatives' desire 
to return to office. "They will be compelled to anticipate the 
moment when their power is to cease, when their exercise of it 
is to be reviewed, and when they must descend to the level from 
which they are raised, there forever to remain unless a faithful 



discharge of their trust shall have established their title to a 
renewal of it." . . . 

The book closes with an epigram for which its author will be 
widely envied among native writers. Having given a brief re- 
view of events leading to the Revolution and noted the survival 
of such good names as those of Patrick Henry and Samuel 
Adams, despite contemporary outpourings of wrath and ingrati- 
tude, Mr. Miyakawa observes : "In politics the Teutonic and 
related races, then as now, characteristically hated with prompt- 
ness and forgave with generosity." 

"Powers of the American People" is illustrated with portraits 
of Presidents, Cabinet members, judges, leaders and the author. 



The Manchester Union. 

March i8, 1907. Manchester, N. H. 

This work was written by a Japanese — a bright one, too — in 
English, without revision, as to matter or of literary form as 
to English. The book takes its place not only as a remarkably 
interesting one from a literary point of view, but also as giving 
the viewpoint of an Oriental scholar of American institutions. 
The author is a lecturer of the law school of the University 
of Indiana, and is the first Japanese attorney ever admitted to 
the American bar. Not only are the "powers" of the American 
people and their representatives considered comprehensively, but 
considerable attention is devoted to England and Japan. The 
author does not rest content with skimming over his subject in 
a general way, but enters boldly and coniidently into details. 
The book is interesting in a literary way, but it is also a valuable 
compendium of useful knowledge. 



The New York Sun. 

March 23, 1907. Nczo York City, N. Y. 

A Japanese who has been taking notes among us. Dr. Masuji 
Miyakawa, has written an intelligent treatise in English on 



"Powers of the American People, Congress, President and 
Courts, According to Evolution of Constitutional Construction.' 
This study of our Constitution if translated into Japanese 
. would probably lead to a better understanding in Japan 
of the difficulties involved in certain pending questions. To 
Americans the chief interest lies in occasional comparisons with 
Japanese conditions. An essay in an appendix gives a general 
conspectus of European history as viewed by an Oriental scholar 
studying its relations to the American Revolution. ... The 
author shows a remarkable idiomatic command of the language. 



The Boston Transcript. 

March 27, 1907. ^^'^^''' ^^''■ 

Powers of the American People, Congress, President and 
Courts, According to Evolution of Constitutional Construction. 
By Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., Washington. 

Government problems and systems are discussed in this vol- 
ume notable chiefly because it is the work of the first Japanese 
attorney ever admitted to the American bar. It shows a vast 
amount of research and careful sifting of a prodigious mass of 
material The author takes various phases of the Constitution, 
sets forth the clauses upon which each of the four Powers rest, 
presents Supreme Court decisions bearing upon each, and then 
discusses them in legal and sound, if not always illuminating, 
style . He explains at length all phases of many ques- 

tions and shows the theory and practical character of the power 
of the various forces that make up and conduct the Government 
of the United States. Some new views of the much-discussed 
question of State rights are presented in their relations to many 
important questions, particularly in the section which relates^ to 
the courts. The executive and judicial powers of the United 
States are very broad subjects, but the author considers them 
as fully as one man may find time to study such a wide field 
and he covers at least all that are applied to the daily affairs and 
transactions of life. 



In the concluding chapter relating to the courts he says : 
"And at last the legislative, executive and judicial powers are 
coextensive with each other. They are equal in dignity and of 
co-ordinate authority. Neither can subject the other to its ju- 
risdiction, or strip it of any portion of its constitutional powers." 
Appendix I contains a summary of the history of the United 
States before the promulgation of the Constitution, and Ap- 
pendix II includes the Constitution itself. There are several 
illustrations in the volume, mainly small portraits of presi- 
dents, members of the Cabinet, the Senate and House. The 
chief value of the volume is in its carefully digested summa- 
ries of important Supreme Court decisions, and the opinions of 
the author himself upon the questions, all these things being 
carefully placed in sections, and having handy references in a 
complete index. 



The Seattle Post Intelligencer. 

March 30, 1907. Seattle, Wash. 

The people of the Pacific States long since became familiar 
with the wonderful progress of Japan in her assimilation of 
the ideals of Occidental civilization, but it will be a surprise 
to most of us to learn that there recently has been published a 
critical work on the Constitution of the United States by a 
Japanese. The author. Prof. Masuji Miyakawa, was educated 
in America, was the first Japanese attorney ever admitted to 
the American bar, and is now a lecturer in the law school of 
the University of Indiana. The work is characterized by a 
simplicity and directness that well might be imitated by American 
writers,. The plan of the work is to discuss the constitution 
only as it defines the powers delegated to the federal government, 
the powers retained by the states as such, and the powers re- 
served to the people. Prof. Miyakawa's work is an excellent 
text-book on the Constitution, and is well worth reading by mem- 
bers of the bar. 



The Washington Herald. 

March 31, 1907. Washington, D. C. 

In his "Powers of the American People," Prof. Masuji Miya- 
kawa, D. C. L., LL. D., has followed in the footsteps of other 
distinguished foreigners in helping us of America to see our- 
selves as others see us. From De Tocqueville we got the French 
view of our democracy; from Ambassador Bryce, the English idea 
of our commonwealth, and from Munsterberg, the German view. 

Prof. Miyakawa, in his volume, sets forth the clauses of the 
Constitution upon which each of the four powers of the American 
government rests, and cites the construction that has been given 
them by the authoritative exposition of the courts of the estab- 
lished practice of the government of the United States. In his 
main argument, the author follows the line of constitutional in- 
terpretation as it is writ down by our leaders in jurisprudence, 
but from time to time he indulges in passages of original com- 
ment which are instructive and interesting. . . . 

For instance, discussing "The People," he writes : . . . 

The Komin, or the "people," of Japan is nothing more than 
the Omitakara or the "public treasure." The distinguished com- 
mentators, or rather introducers of the Japanese constitution, 
say: "It is to be noticed that there have been instances of the 
people calling themselves the Emperor's treasures, as may be 
seen from the following poem : 'Happy are we, his Majesty's 
treasure, to have an ample recompense for our earthly existence 
in having been born at an epoch so full of prosperity and glory.' " 

Mr. Miyakawa also discusses such points of difference as exist 
between our Congress and the Diet of Japan. He has much to 
say that is interesting about the men who make up the two 
bodies of our lawmakers, and is inclined to be enthusiastic about 
them. The quality of this Americanized Japanese literary style — 
more than a trifle grandiose — may be judged from the following 
paragraph in which he discusses the American Chief Executive. 
He says : 

"The President of the United States, the strictest creature of 
the constitutional nomenclature, is not obnubilated behind the 



mysterious obscurity of counselors. Power is communicated to 
him with Hberality, though with ascertained limitations. To him 
the provident or improvident use of it is to be ascribed. For the 
first he will have and deserve undivided applause. For the last, 
he will be subject to censure, if necessary, to punishment. He 
is the dignified but accountable magistrate of a free and great 
people. The tenure of his office, it is true, is not hereditary; 
nor is it for life; but still it is a tenure of the noblest kind; by 
being a man of the people, his investiture will be voluntarily and 
cheerfully and honorably renewed." 

The work is a scholarly and able one; it reflects great credit 
on its author, and it will be, without doubt, vastly useful to 
American students of government, as well as helpful, perhaps, 
to Mr. Miyakawa's own countrymen by aiding them to under- 
stand us. 



The Columbus Dispatch. 

March 31, 1907. Columbus, Ohio. 

The name of Masuji Miyakawa will not have a familiar 
sound to many, as an expounder of the American Constitution 
and governmental regime, but the bearer of it has written an 
interesting book on "Powers of the American People, Congress, 
President and Courts." He is the first Japanese ever admitted 
to the bar in this country, and the work is written by him in 
English, without revision or editing. . . . That he has grasped 
the ideal and purpose that animated the writers of our Con- 
stitution may be judged from the following: "The aim and pur- 
pose of every political construction is, or ought to be, first to 
obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern and 
most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society and, in 
the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keep- 
ing them virtuous while they continue to hold their public trust." 

The book forms a useful and convenient constitutional manual, 
treating each section separately and comprehensively. And in 
the curroit discussion as to constitutional pozvers of Congress 



and the President, it is refreshing to read this true statement: 
"The people, who are the only legitimate fountain of power, will 
be able at any and all times to bring the constitution back to its 
original forms." Until the people protest, we may cease from 
troubling as to what the President is doing to the Constitution. 



The Milwaukee Press. 

April 3, 1907. Milwaukee, Wis. 

The writer of this volume is a lecturer of the law school of 
the University of Indiana and the first native Japanese to be 
admitted to the American bar. That he is a student of clear 
perceptions and discriminating judgment of our system of gov- 
ernment displays not only remarkable familiarity with the tech- 
nical phases of the subject, but, what is more to the point, a 
comprehensive grasp of the genius and spirit of our institutions. 
We know of no other author who has succeeded in presenting a 
more comiact review and discussion of the powers intended to 
he lodged in the three departments of the government, the execu- 
tive, the legislative and the judicial. The arrangement is sys- 
tematic and all his deductions are fortiHed by the decisions of 
the Supreme Court. The work was doubtless intended as a text- 
book for students of the federal system and for professors em- 
ployed as the writer is in conducting law casesi which it seems 
well adapted. 



The Indianapolis Star. 

April 7, 1907. Indianapolis, Ind. 

The people of the United States have been favored with works 
on their system of government by English, French, German and 
other European writers that have been quite useful in the way 
at least of aiding us to see ourselves as others see us. Now we 
have one by a Japanese, Masuji Miyakawa, a lecturer at the law 
school of the Indiana University, and the first Japanese admitted 
to the bar in his country. It is entitled, "Powers of the Ameri- 



can People, Congress, President and Courts, According to Evo- 
lution of Constitutional Construction." 

Miyakawa's study of the Constitution is made at once vivid 
and interesting by his comparisons with Japan as well as with 
European powers. The book is very well written throughout, 
the style being clear and luminous. . . . 

In his treatment of the subject Miyakawa is a very thorough- 
going nationalist. He has never the shadow of a doubt that the 
Constitution made this a Nation with a big "N." His complete 
ignoring of the old question of the intent of the makers of the 
Constitution would probably give St. George Tucker a night- 
mare, but from the practical point of view of fait accompli his 
view of our Government is hardly open to question. 



The Portland Oregonian. 

April 7, 1907. Portland, Oregon. 

The excellence of this law book is marked when one remem- 
bers it is written by a Japanese, in English, without revision as 
to matter or of literary form as to the English. . . . 

It is interesting to read the viewpoint of a noted Japanese 
scholar of American law and institutions, and in this respect 
the offering is unique. Dr. Miyakawa is a lecturer of the Law 
School of the University of Indiana and ... is the first Japa- 
nese attorney ever admitted to practice in American law courts. 

Dr. Miyakawa divides his book into four portions dealing with 
the people, Congress, the President and the Courts — to the extent 
of 207 pages of closely printed matter. Following these are two 
appendices dealing with the period before the promulgation of 
the Constitution of this country, emphasis being particularly 
laid on the historic and economic causes leading to the necessity 
for this constitution. The constitution referred to and the va- 
rious amendments passed, are likewise given. In detail, the rea- 
soning is tempered by wide reading and conservatism. . . . 



The Galveston News. 

April 7 1907. Galveston, Texas. 

The author of this book is the first Japanese attorney ever 
admitted to the American bar. There are set forth the clauses 
of the Constitution upon which each of the four powers rests, 
as well as the construction that has been given them by the 
authoritative exposition of the courts or well established prac- 
tice of the Government of the United States. The work should 
remove the impression that has largely obtained among students 
of the government and others in the Old World that because of 
its newness the American system could present little of interest 
or value to the investigator. The work will prove a manual of 
instruction for the student as to the theory and practical powers 
of the people, Congress, the President and courts of the United 
States. 



The Indianapolis News. 

April 13, 1907. Indianapolis, Ind. 

Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., lecturer of the Law 
School of the University of Indiana, and the first Japanese 
attorney admitted to the American bar, is the author of a 
work entitled "Powers of the American People, Congress, 
President and Courts, According to Evolution of Constitutional 
Construction." It is a book that shows a considerable amount 
of research on the part of the author and a careful estimate of 
the value of the material which he found. Various phases of 
the constitution are discussed and the clauses relatmg to the 
four "powers" are set forth, together with Supreme Court de- 
cisions concerning them. These, in turn, are subjected to a 
keen analysis and the consequent deductions, if not always pre- 
sented in illuminating style, are, in any event, both legal and 
sound. The author also explains at length various phases of 
many questions which have come before the American people 
from time to time and discusses both the theory and the prac- 



tice of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the 
Government. It is probable, however, that the chief value of the 
book will be found in its carefully digested summaries of the 
important decisions rendered by the Supreme Court. It has, 
moreover, a value in discovering the estimate of a Japanese of 
our constitution. 



The Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

April 14, 1907. Cleveland, Ohio. 

A rather remarkable work is that of Masuji Miyakawa, lec- 
turer in the Law School of the University of Indiana, and the 
first Japanese ever admitted to the American bar. The title of 
Mr. Miyakawa's book is "Powers of the American People, Con- 
gress, President and Courts, According to Evolution of Con- 
stitutional Construction." The volume is intended as a constitu- 
tional text-book. It seeks to analyze the sections of the Con- 
stitution that give the powers to the people and to the judicial, 
legislative and executive branches of government, and to show 
how these sections have been interpreted by the courts and by 
the established practice of the American government. The book 
is written throughout with the keenest insight. It is capitally 
arranged, and should be of material assistance to the student of 
constitutional law. 



The Toronto Globe. 

April 20, 1907. Toronto, Canada. 

An interesting and novel addition to the literature of the 
American Constitution has been published ... in the form 
of a treatise upon "Powers of the American People, Congress, 
President and Courts," by Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D. 
The treatise ... is a scholarly and well represented state- 
ment of various outstanding features of the constitution of the 
United States. Mr. Miyakawa is a lecturer at the law School 



of the University of Indiana, and the first Japanese attorney- 
aver admitted to the American Bar. He is able to speak upon 
the subject, therefore, with authority, and the views which he 
takes of the principal constitutional problems have in them 
something of his own Oriental individuality, which makes them 
attractive and unique. The prominent feature of the work is 
the manner in which the author lays stress upon the develop- 
ment of the constitution from that of Great Britain, and the 
evolution of the laws of the country from Roman law. 
The deviations • of the American system from that of Great 
Britain are dwelt upon frequently, and the inherent differences 
between a monarchical and a republican system of government 
are discussed incidentally, in such a way as to throw much 
light upon the subject. To the casual reader as well as to the 
student, the book will be interesting as a contribution from an 
Oriental mind upon an Anglo-Saxon constitution. 



The Japanese-American Commercial Weekly. 

(Only Japanese Journal published both in Japanese and English 
in America.) 

April 20, 1907. New York City, N. Y. 

• JAPANESE JAMES BRYCE. 

It is comparatively easy for a foreigner to write a treatise on 
American institutions in his own language. 

James Bryce's American Commonwealth was written in the 
author's own language which is the language of this country of 
America. But Mr. Miyakawa being a Japanese, must of ne- 
cessity have had some difficulties, unknown to Mr. Bryce, in 
taking notes of the institutions of the country, and, further, in 
writing down in English language. His latest work. Powers of 
the American People, would show to the readers of the book 
how a Japanese thinks of this country, which is often asked of 



us Japanese by our American friends. Read Mr. Miyakawa's 
book, and you will be able to answer your question. 

Therefore, we recommend to our readers Mr. Miyakawa's 
Powers of American People, Congress, President, and Courts. 

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AND MR. MIYAKAWA. 

Mr. Miyakawa, who is the author of "Powers of the American 
People," the book which we have recommended to our readers 
in a previous issue, has been congratulated by many members of 
both Houses of Congress and by legal authorities on the work. 
Most recently President Roosevelt also received him at the White 
House and interviewed him. 



The Ohio State Journal. 

April 21, 1907. Columbus, Ohio. 

A very unusual book on the United States government has 
recently been published. It is unusual principally on account 
of the point of view of its author, a Japanese attorney, who is 
practicing law in America. Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., 
the author in question, is a lecturer of the Law School of the 
University of Indiana, and is the first Japanese attorney ever 
admitted to the American bar. 

His book is entitled "Powers of the American People, Con- 
gress, President and Courts, According to Evolution of Con- 
stitutional Construction." The literary form, which it is said 
was not revised by publishers, is exceptional, and as the work 
of a foreigner is certainly remarkable. But the chief claim 
to consideration which the volume has is that it represents the 
viewpoint of an Oriental scholar, and that it represents the in- 
stitutions as they appear to an Eastern mind, and as compared 
with foreign laws and governments. 



The book is most informing, and it will undoubtedly give 
American students a clearer view to see their institutions from 
so different a range. 



The Buffalo Express. 

April 21, 1907. Buffalo, N. Y. 

This is a unique book from the fact that it was written by a 
Japanese in English, without revision as to matter or literary 
form. Moreover, it exhibits so correct an understanding of the 
American Constitution and system of government that it might 
well serve as a model for other foreigners who study and write 
about the American Government. Professor Miyakawa, how- 
ever, has had ample preparation for his work. He is the first 
Japanese ever admitted to the American bar and is a lecturer 
in the Law School of the University of Indiana. It is, there- 
fore, no new task for him to instruct Americans in the laws of 
their country, and, except the author's name, there is nothing 
about the book which would lead one to suspect that it was not 
written by a native born scholar. It is instructive, clear and 
painstaking. 



• The Washington Star. 

April 27, 1907. Washington, D. C. 

Prof. Miyakawa, who has the unique distinction of being the 
first Japanese attorney ever admitted to the American bar, has 
produced a book peculiarly interesting as the expression of 
eastern study of government in America. It is not unusual to 
have access to the comments of the English, French and German 
minds on American conditions, as, for instance, the volumes of 
the English ambassador, Mr. James Bryce, whose "American 
Commonwealth" is now a classic, or Prof. Hugo Munsterberg's 
"The Americans." . . . Prof. Miyakawa' s book . . . is a study 



made in a thoroughly philosophic manner and with the patience 
of scholarship. It aims to make a perfect exposition of the 
theory and practical character of the powers in the hands of the 
people and of the three co-ordinate branches of government of 
the United States, and incidentally has the object of showing 
that the newness of the American system in no way lessens its 
interest or value to the student investigator, and is in no sense 
inimical to old world systems. To find and set forth the clauses 
in the Constitution upon which the four powers rest, as well 
as the authoritative interpretation given them by the courts of 
the established practice, has been the particular purpose of the 
author's investigations. The scientific spirit in which the work 
has been done and the method of comparison of English and 
Japanese codes employed with an oriental viewpoint makes the 
volume of special value. 



The San Francisco Call. 

April 28, 1907. San Francisco, Cal. 

It should be conside;-ed first of all that the book under 
discussion was written by a Japanese in English, and was pub- 
lished without revision as to matter or literary form. Pro- 
duced under such conditions the book is really remarkable. 
The author is a lecturer in the Law School of the University 
of Indiana, and the first Japanese attorney admitted to the 
American bar. 

We have had a volume on our democracy from the French 
viewpoint, by De Tocqueville, one from Munsterberg, giving the 
German idea, and Bryce's English view is one of the best in the 
language. 

Dr. Miyakawa's opening remarks in his chapter on "The 
People" are worth quoting: 

"The word 'the people' of the United States, in its proper 
legal acceptation, means the whole mass of male and female 
citizens constituting the poHtical unit. It is identified as the 
political entity and artificial person, and not a majority of the 



individuals composing society and those persons who have the 
right to vote. Turning to Blackstone, people is used in the 
same sense as subjects and not in the sense of the body politic 
or a part of it. Nowhere will one find 'the people' as the 
American will find in the laws of this country." . . . 

Dr. Miyakawa brings up many interesting points of simi- 
larity and radical difference between the forms of Japanese 
and American government. Speaking of our Congress and the 
Japanese Diet he says that the latter has no share in the sov- 
ereign power; it may deliberate upon laws, but not determine 
them. 

"All the different legislative powers are fundamentally and 
practically rested in the most exalted personage, his Majesty, 
the Emperor of Japan, the creator of the imperial constitution, 
the source and fountainhead of all political life of great Japan 
herself. 

"The President of the United States," says Dr. Miyakawa, 
"the strictest creature of the constitutional nomenclature, is not 
obnubilated behind the mysterious obscurity of counselors. 
Power is communicated to him with liberality, though with as- 
certained limitations. To him the provident or improvident use 
of it is to be ascribed. For the first he will have and deserve 
undivided applause. For the last he will be subject to censure; 
if necessary, to punishment." 

The closing sentence of the book is likely to be quoted. The 
author has hastily gone through the clauses of the Revolution 
and notes that Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams are names 
more prominent to-day in history and more respected than by 
their contemporaries. He says: "In politics the Teutonic and 
related races, then, as now, characteristically hated with prompt- 
ness and forgave with generosity." 



The Seattle Times. 

April 28, 1907. Seattle, Wash. 

No argument would seem to be necessary to prove the im- 
portance of instructing the students of government in the theory 



and practical character of the powers of the people, Congress, 
the President, and the courts of the United States. The im- 
pression has largely obtained among students of government 
and others in the Old World that because of its newness the 
American system to the investigator; it has been believed also 
by many that the American system was inimical to Old World 
systems. The fact that hitherto no convenient manual of in- 
struction was to be had may have been largely responsible for 
such misconceptions, and if this work shall be the means of 
removing such impressions it will have accomplished its purpose. 
In preparing it, it has been the endeavor of the author to set 
forth the clauses of the Constitution upon which each of the 
four powers rests, as well as the construction that has been 
given them by the authoritative exposition of the courts, or well 
established practice of the government of the United States. 
This work was written by a Japanese in English without revision 
as to matter or of literary form as to the English, and must be 
considered quite unique. 



The Oakland Enquirer. 

May I, 1907. Oakland, Cat. 

The versatility of the Japanese is proverbial, but hitherto 
there have been comparatively few serious works by Japanese 
authors in English. A recent conspicuous example of the thor- 
oughly studious bent of the Japanese mind is a volume entitled 
"Powers of the American People, Congress, President and 
Courts, According to Evolution of Constitutional Construction,'' 
by Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D. The author is a lecturer 
of the Law School of the University of Indiana and is said to 
be the first Japanese attorney ever admitted to the American 
bar. The hook displays a very intelligent comprehension of the 
fundamental principles of the political system of this country, 
the constitutional poivers of the people and the extent and limi- 



tations thereof. At the outset the author says : "The term of 
'The People,' from the American standpoint is entirely different 
from the nature of the same title as used in Asiatic and Euro- 
pean countries. It has a distinct and different meaning which the 
doctors of law in those countries, no matter how fully versed 
in the principles of the law, cannot comprehend until they were 
in the spirit of the American understanding of it. The words 
'the people,' in the United States, in their proper legal accept- 
ance, mean the whole mass of the male and female citizens con- 
stituting the political unit. 'The people' stand as the political 
entity an artificial person and not a majority of the individuals 
composing society and those persons who have the right to 
vote." The writer takes up the interpretation of the various 
sections of the Constitution and in a comprehensive appendix 
describes the growth of the constitutional government, the 
Grecian republics, the Roman constitution, the Teutonic family 
of nations, liberty as the birthright of Englishmen and other 
topics relating to the constitution. The work is extensively 
illustrated and fully indexed. 



The Philadelphia Press. 

May 12, 1907. Philadelphia, Pa. 

Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L,-, LL. D., has the proud distinction 
of being the first Japanese attorney ever admitted to the Ameri- 
can bar. He is a lecturer in the Law School of the University 
of Indiana. He has written a sort of text-book entitled "Powers 
of the American People, Congress, President and Courts, Ac- 
cording to Evolution of Constitutional Construction." This 
treatise on civics takes the plan of an explanation of the Federal 
Constitution as it is found in practice and as it has been inter- 
preted by the Supreme Court of the United States. The book 
is clearly written and the material is presented in a manner which 
will interest and instruct the reader. 



The San Francisco Chronicle. 

May ig, 1907. San Francisco, Cal. 

Masuji Miyakawa, doctor of laws, and also doctor of civil 
laws — and a very young man to possess so much learning — is the 
first Japanese attorney ever admitted to the American bar, and 
also lecturer in the Law School of the University of Indiana. 
Mr. Miyakawa has promptly conformed to the American senti- 
ment that each university instructor must write a book, and 
has prepared, evidently for the use of his classes, a book of 260 
pages, entitled "The Powers of the American People, Congress, 
President and Courts," which evinces an excellent understanding 
of the nature of our Government, as well as a good command 
of idiomatic English. His descriptions, however, are very gen- 
erally — and very properly — couched in the language of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States employed in delineating the 
powers of the different branches of our Government, thereby 
giving to the work an authority which the public would hardly 
accord to any foreign-born student of our institutions. 

If, as will appear from his book, Mr. Miyakawa is a good 
teacher, his class work must be very interesting, coming, as it 
does, from one brought up under institutions so radically differ- 
ent from our own, as can be well expressed in a condensation 
of a few paragraphs from his book. "The term 'the people,' from 
the American standpoint, is entirely different from the nature of 
the same title as used in Asiatic and European countries. No- 
where will one find 'the people' as the American will find in the 
laws of his own country. In England there is no such legal 
entity as the people. Parliament is supreme, which does not 
necessarily represent even the majority of the inhabitants. The 
'komin,' which is the nearest Japanese equivalent, means the 
'public treasure,' thereby implying that they belong to the Em- 
peror who alone, and not the Diet or any other constitutional 
body, gives vitality and force to public law." The lectures of 
a jurist brought up in an environment so utterly diverse from our 
own must be exceedingly interesting and informing to students. 



EXTRACTS 

The London Times, London, England: — 

" 'Powers of the American People, Congress, President, and 
Courts, According to Evolution of Constitutional Construction.' 
By Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., 9>4x6i/^, xiV, 260 
pp. . . . 

"The author of this expository treatise, who writes in excellent 
English, is lecturer of the Law School of Indiana University, 
and the first Japanese attorney admitted to the American 
bar. ..." 



The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, Cal. : — 

"Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., lecturer of the Law 
School of the University of Indiana, and the first Japanese 
attorney to be admitted to the American bar, has written a 
discussion of the Constitution of the United States. . 
Dr. Miyakawa takes up each section of the Constitution, gives 
its general meaning and quotes from various court decisions 
referring to the section under discussion." 



The Boston Globe, Boston, Mass. : — 

" 'Powers of the American People, Congress, President and 
Courts,' by Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., is a fair and 
impartial presentation of the theoretical and practical working 
of the U. S. Government, and is of great importance and help 
to all students of government. It is interesting to note that the 
author is a lecturer of the Law School of the University of 
Indiana, and the first Japanese attorney ever admitted to the 
American bar." 



The Washington Post, Washington, D. C. : — 

" 'Powers of the American People, Congress, President, and 
Courts,' by Masuji Miyakawa. The book is a discourse upon 
the evolution of constitutional construction, and is written by a 
Japanese professor of law of the University of Indiana. The 
work is quite unique, in that it is written by a Japanese in 
English without revision as to literary form." 



The Kansas City Star, Kansas City, Mo. : — 

" 'Powers of the American People, Congress, President, and 
Courts, According to Evolution of Constitutional Construction.' 
By Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., lecturer of the Law 
School of the University of Indiana, and the first Japanese 
attorney admitted to the American bar. A manual of instruc- 
tion for students of government. ... It has been the endeavor 
of the author to set forth the clauses of the constitution upon 
which each of the four powers rests, as well as the construction 
that has been given them by the authoritative exposition of the 
courts on the well established practice of the government of the 
United States." 



The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky. : — 

"Prof. Miyakawa, of the Law Department of the University of 
Indiana, is the first Japanese to be admitted to the American 
bar. . . . That while the importance of instructing stu- 
dents of government in the theory and character of that gov- 
ernment and its courts admits of no argument, hitherto no 
convenient manual of instruction was accessible. It is with the 
thought of supplying this need that he has been led to write 
the present practical volume." 



The Boston Journal, Boston, Mass. : — 

"Towers of the American People,' by Masuji Miyakawa. 
This volume, written by the first Japanese attorney ever ad- 
mitted to the American bar, and written in English, without 
revision as to matter or of literary form as to English, must be 
considered quite unique. As showing the viewpoint of an Ori- 
ental scholar of our institutions, it is certainly most interesting." 



The Cincinnati Times-Star, Cincinnati, Ohio : — 

"Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L-, LL. D., is the first Japanese at- 
torney ever admitted to the American bar. He has written a 
book called "Powers of the American People," in which we get 
the viewpoint of an Oriental scholar on our institutions. The 
further fact that the work was written in English without re- 
vision as to matter or of literary form as to the English, dis- 
tinguishes it as quite unique." 



The Boston Financial News, Boston, Mass. : — 

"The author, who is a well-known student of American aflfairs, 
has made an exhaustive study of our institutions, and in this 
work discusses them very intelligently." 



The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio: — 

"Mr. Miyakawa's study of our institutions has been character- 
istically thorough, and students of government will find the 
work cogently interesting here and there by reason of occa- 
sional striking novelty in the view expressed." 



The Boston Herald, Boston, Mass. : — 

"The volume possesses a unique interest." 



The Pittsburg Dispatch, Pittsburg, Pa.:— 

"Particular novelty." 



The Hartford Courant, Hartford, Conn.: — 

"Book on our government founding his conclusions very prop- 
erly on 'the evolution of constitutional construction,' and, quite 
correctly, emphasizing the idea of the sovereignty of the people." 



The Outlook, New York City, N. Y. :— 

"It is a remarkably clear and comprehensive statement of the 
fundamental principles of our American Constitution, and might 
well be commended to the lay reader who desires to obtain a 
nonpartisan impression and scholarly view of the nature of our 
government and the functions of its various departments." 



The Annals of the American Academy of Political and 
Social Science, Philadelphia, Pa.: — 

"To the foreign lawyer who wishes to become familiar with the 
theoretical side of our government the book will be of con- 
siderable importance." 



Book Review Digest, Minneapolis, Minn. : — 

"A manual of instruction which points out the various powers 
and duties which are imposed by the Constitution, written by a 
Japanese attorney — the first to be admitted to the American bar." 



AUG 29 im 



